Sisters
by Jazzy757505
Summary: In the world of Transformers Prime, there is a war between the Decepticons and the Autobots and only a pair of unlikely young friends cans top the war and revive Cybertron.
1. Prologue

Prologue

A small child creeped from the foliage, slowly making her way to the crash site. There were big pieces of metal everywhere and in the middle of the crash site was a pod with a gaping hole leading inside. The little girl looked around, making sure that there are no threats nearby and she walked up to the pod and looked inside and found a small robot. She has dents and scrapes all over her and her eyes were blinking blue lights. The little immediately made her way up and examined the damage. She shook her head and she turned to leave but before she can leave, the robot's head turned and look at her.

"P-please h-help m-me, I-I n-need e-energon….", then the robot fell unconscious. The little girl frowned, not knowing what that meant when suddenly, it clicked in her mind. She did not question how she suddenly knew but she found herself going to a nearby cave that she did not know exist, being lead by an unknown force. She plucked the smallest crystals and a bright light surrounded the crystals, turning them into little blue cubes. The girl ran back to the robot starting pounding on her head.

"Wake up! I got energon!" She screamed as loudly as she can and she saw the robot's eyes flickering blue again. The robot groaned as she took all of her remaining strength to sit up and drink up the energon hungrily.

"What's your name?" The little girl asked the robot.

"A-actually, I don't have a name…" She whispered the last part, her head hanging low.

"Chin up girl! I'll give you one!" The little girl frowned in concentration and thought long and hard. Suddenly, she jumped up with a bright smile on her face.

"I'll name you Foliage Green because I found you in the foliage!" The robot thought about it and ran the words over her glossa several times. She smiled and her optics shined brighter than before.

" What's your name?" Foliage asked the little human femme. As soon as those words slipped out of her mouth, the little girl stopped celebrating and hung her head low.

"So you also don't have a name?" Foliage asked the little girl in the quietest voice she could muster. The little girl shook her head sadly. Foliage though over and over again of a name for her savior.

After a while, she decided to scan one of the trees closest to her and she learned that it was called a maple tree. She went on what the inhabitants of this planet call "the internet" and found that you can make maple syrup from maple sap. Foliage smiled at her chosen name, seeing how well it suited her little savior. Her hair was the same color as her chosen name and her smile is as sweet as her chosen name.

"Little savior?" The girl perked up at her new nickname.

"I think the name Maple Syrup will suit you, don't you think?" Maple smiled instantly as she heard her name.

"Thank you Foliage!"


	2. Encountering The Autobots

Foliage and Maple were walking through the Nevada desert, somewhere near the town called Jasper.

"Energon signal getting stronger!" Maple yelled from up front after having a look at her energon scanner.

"Aye aye captain!" Foliage saluted to her friend and they both marched onward, following the constant beeping of the scanner. They looked ahead of them and saw some Cons in action and there was a red Autobot for horns in the middle. He was getting beaten up real bad.

"Horny is knee deep in scrap!" Maple whispered from her hiding spot. She looked at Foliage and smiled slyly.

"Ready when you are Mae-Mae!" and Foliage counted down.

"3...2...1…"

"SUGAR CRUSH!" Both girls jumped off the cliff at the same time and landed right in front of Horny. Horny looked confused for a moment and some vehicon took advantage of that moment and knocked him out cold. The girls were back to back in a very tight circle.

"I can't believe Horny got knocked out the moment we got in!" Maple yelled over the crossfire.

"I know right! Now we're probably gonna die or get captured because of him!" Foliage docked a killing blow from a vehicon and delivered to same on to him, offlining him instantly. As the girls fought, roars of engines became louder and louder and it picked up more dust, blocking everyone's view on the battlefield.

"I can't see Cliff, Optimus!" Arcee said through comm.

"I got a visual of a femmeling, a young human girl, and an unconscious Cliff in the middle of them!" Bumblebee speed ahead and jumped of the Cliff. He landed right next to the human girl, fighting on a hoverboard. She looked over at him and screamed.

"AHHHHHHH! BIG MEANIE YELLOW BOT!" Maple screamed as loud as she can. Foliage heard this and immediately ran over to her and she was in a fighting stance between Bumblebee and her friend.

"Get away from me or I'll shoot!" The sound of an activating gun filled the battlefield. The other Autobots fought of the remaining Cons and rab over the aid Bumblebee.

"Damn it Foli, you managed to attract all of their attention!" Maple yelled at Foliage, coming out from behind her and standing right in front of her.

"Shut up Mae-Mae or I'll throw away your heels in my subspace", Foliage threatened Maple but she still kept her gun pointed at Bumblebee.

"Hold your fire Autobots, they are just femmlings", Optimus commanded the Autobots. One by one, the lowered their weapons but Foliage and Maple still kept theirs trained at Bumblebee.

"We mean no harm femmes", Optimus stepped forward and addressed them.

"First of all, we are Neutrals", stated Foliage.

"Second of all, we don't wanna have to do anything with the Autobots or the Decepticons because we think war is pointless and stupid and a waste of time!" Maple crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Optimus.

"I understand that but you will have to come with us for your own protection", despite their unfriendly attitude, Optimus still managed to stay calm. Upon hearing that, the girls burst out laughing.

"HAHAHAHA! So funny!" The both yelled out at the Autobots. Arcee gave Bulkhead a funny look and she has an annoyed face.

"What is sooooo funny?!" Arcee snapped at the girls.

"It's just that we've been fighting since we were 5 and we always got out alive!" they yelled out before collapsing into wild laughters. The bots shared a confused look. It's not normal for younglings to start fighting that young! Foliage was only a little bit past Arcee's hips! The girls looked at each other turned to the bots.

"Sorry! Time we hit the bucket!" Maple shouted with glee at the bots. The bots shared yet another confused look.

"What she meant was that we had to go now", Foliage quickly caught on to the bot's confused looks and explained to them. As soon as Optimus heard this, he immediately comm linked the bots and they made a circle around the girl.

"Great, we're gonna kidnapped again", Maple grumbled under her breath but the bots caught on to it. The looked at each other in surprise.

"Let's give the femmlings a little more space", ordered Optimus although he made it sound like a suggestion more than an order. The girls were tense, both in a fighting stance.

"Activate the ground bridge Mae-Mae!" shouted Foliage.

"But I don't have the ground bridge controls! You do!" Mae-Mae called back to Foliage and they both shared a confused look.

"But I gave it to you before we left the base!" Foliage retracted her guns and put her hands to her hips.

"But then I gave it back to you so you could keep it in your subspace!" Mae-Mae insisted and she folded her arms across her chest. The bots shared an amused look as they watch the girls fail the escape attempt. Foliage opened up her subspace and she shoved her hands inside it. Everyone could hear the clanking of things being shoved around as Foliage look for the ground bridge controls.

"Ah ha! Found it!" Foliage held up what looked like race car controls. Foliage handed it to Mae-Mae and she fiddled with controls. The bots heard a whooshing sound of a ground bridge opening right behind them.

"Great! It just had to appear right behind the bots!" Foliage threw her hands up in frustration. She then glared at Maple.

"Why are you looking at me like that?!" Maple yelled at Foliage. But before Foliage could even reply, the heard another bot's voice over comm.

"Optimus, I have detected 2 strange signals near you, to be more precise, right in front of you", and as he said that, Optimus immediately looked at the 2 girls.

"Why is he looking at us?" Foliage whispered to Maple.

"I don't know!" Maple whispered really loudly then shifted her position.

"I need you girls to come with us, we will not harm you", Optimus said in a kind voice.

"Cross your heart then!" Maple shouted at him. Optimus raised an optic ridge.

"They don't have hearts idiot! They have sparks!" Foliage corrected her. Then she turned to Optimus.

"What she meant was you have to make a big cross over your spark with your finger and say: Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a cupcake in my eye", she demonstrated each motion with her hands. The bots looked at their leader in confusion. Then, a sound of clanking metal diverted their attention.

"What… happened?" a dazed Cliffjumper stood up and trudged his way to the bots.

"Oh look! Horny awake and we're so happy!" Maple said sarcastically. Cliffjumper looked at her weirdly.

"Horny?" he asked her. He was now standing right next to Arcee.

"You know what!", Foliage nearly screamed in frustration, "Let's just go with them, we're wasting our time just standing here!" Bumblebee looked at Foliage weirdly after she said that. Optimus comm linked Ratchet for a ground bridge. Maple flipped a switch and their ground bridge disappeared. A ground bridge appeared right behind the girls and they spunned around. Optimus walked up to the front and lead them through the ground bridge.

"Whoa…" the girls looked at the base and all of it's wonders. Arcee stood to one side and crossed her arms, looking smug.

"THIS IS SPARTA!" Maple and Foliage started yelled and started jumping up and down. All of the bots gave them strange looks.

"What, it's from a movie!"

"CLIFFJUMPER! GET YOUR AFT TO THE MEDBAY NOW!" Ratchet screamed at him and threatened him with a wrench. Cliffjumper begrudgingly followed Ratchet, giving the girls a last look before he went. Just about then, 3 more bots came out to see what all of the commotion was about.

"Who are these little femmlings?" the blue autobot asked Optimus. Upon hearing that, Foliage puffed out her chest and strutted to him.

"I'm not a little girl! You're the one that's big!" she said arrogantly, puffing out her chest even more. Maple flew over to her friend.

"What does him being big have to do anything with you being little?" Maple asked her friend with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Foliage turned to her in bewilderment.

"But-but friends are suppose to support each other!?" she said in mock surprise.

"Who said being friends means that we have to support each other?" she arched an eyebrow and looked at Foliage.

"Humph, you're like the best friend in the world" Foliage retorted.

"I know right, I'm such an wesome friend…", she said that in a very sarcastic voice, flipping her hair and rolling her eyes. They kept eye contact for another second before both of them cracked up.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" they laughed together. The bots were surprised at the unexpected turn of events. They noticed the bots' looks and they straightened up right away, letting just a few snickers escape.

"What are your designations?" Optimus stepped up and asked them. They both gave him a blank look.

"He means names" Bumblebee translated for the girls. It took them a moment to catch on what he was saying.

"OHHHH, our names!", Maple piped up, " Well my name is Maple Syrup and this is…."

"Foliage Green." All of the bots were surprised because Foliage was a cybertronian and she has a human name.

"EWWW! She has a human friend and now she also has a human name!" gold bot said, scrunching his face up. As soon as he said that, Foliage turned around and pointed her finger at his face.

"NO ONE! I REPEAT MYSELF NO ONE MAKES FUN OF MY LITTLE SAVIOR!" she screamed at him, rage was evident in her eyes.

"If you put your hands on her and harm her in any way, even if a tiny strand of hair was missing from her head, I will tear you apart and and kick you to Cybertron and back and and use your parts to make a thingamajig and and…"but then she was cutted off by Maple.

"Enough! Let me threaten him!", she said to Foliage, who begrudgingly step back. Bumblebee tried to interfere but Optimus held him back.

"If you make fun of Foli because of her name, I will pour acid over you and pepper spray you and tear you apart piece by piece and stomp on you and lock you up in HELL!" she yelled out the last word, loud enough that everyone in the base could hear it. The girls were still glaring at gold bot.

"Why don't we introduce ourselves?" Jazz asked, trying to break up the tension in the base.

"Ooooo! Could we guess your names?" miraculously, Maple forgot all about her rage and turned to Cliffjumper.

"Ummm, is your name Horny?" Foliage asked innocently, looking at him with wide eyes. Cliffjumper looked surprised at the guess.

"No but good guess kiddo!" he smiled at them encouragingly. The girls looked at each other, deep in thought. They thought long and hard and finally, they came up with something.

"You jumped off a cliff right?" Maple suddenly asked him. He was taken back by the sudden question and it clearly showed on his face.

"So is your name Cliffjumper?" they both asked at the same time. Everyone in the room was surprised and in awe that the girls managed to guess his name.

"Oh yea, one point for Neutrals, 0 for Autobots!" they cheered and started doing a little jig. Everyone in the room chuckled except for Ratchet who snorted, Optimus with a serious face, and Sunstreaker who glared at them.

"How about we just tell you our names, it will be quicker!" Arcee suggested, knowing that if the girls continue, they will never get anywhere. The girls pouted.

"Fine…", they grumbled, looking crestfallen.

"My name is Bumblebee! I'm the scout" he chirped excitedly.

"My name is Sunstreaker and this is my idiot twin, Sideswipe," Sunstreaker growled at the girls and they growled back. Sideswipe elbowed his brother hard.

"My names Jazz and I'm 3rd in command! Nice to meet you!" he waved at the girls and they waved back cheerfully.

"I'm Arcee and Cliff's my partner", Arcee stated cooly. The girls snickered at that but no one could figure out why.

"I'm Ratchet the medic", Ratchet gruffly said, never once tearing his eyes away from the control panels.

"My name is Bulkhead, the only Wrecker on Earth!" Bulkhead made the Earth peace sign the the girls returned the favor. BLEEP BLEEP BLEEP! All of the bots turned to the control panels where Ratchet was working.

"It's an encoded video from Starscream…" Ratchet said gravely. Everyone in the room wondered what the video was about. Ratchet opened the video and Starscream's face appeared on the screen.

"Ah! This message is for Foliage Green and Maple Syrup! I didn't find you at your base so I thought you might be with the Autobot scum. I have located your base and we are now reducing it to smithereens! Enjoy the show!" Starscream cackled evilly. The camera turned to where the entrance of the cave was with Vehicons shooting at it. Foliage and Maple pushed their way to the front and watched their home being destroyed. Vehicons shot at it and at the end, it was blown up with dynamites. They watched it in silence, not uttering a word. After the video was finished, there was a deadly silence in the room.

"Could I punch you?" Maple asked Foliage in a deadly quiet voice, not once leaving her eyes from the screen. Foliage just nodded, too shocked to say anything.

"Could I punch you Cliff?" she asked Cliff, not once looking up but just staring at the floor.

"S-sure," he said in surprise. Silence filled the room and suddenly, the girls screamed.

"THAT SON OF A GLITCH!" they yelled and Maple punched Foliage and she punched Cliffjumper real hard. They returned to their usual spots and sighed.

Then, Foliage started singing. (Italics=Foliage and Underline=Maple Italics and Underline=both)

You shout it out,

But I can't hear a word you say

I'm talking loud, not saying much

I'm criticized but all your bullets ricochet

Shoot me down, but I get up

I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose

Fire away, fire away

Ricochet, you take your aim

Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

Shoot me down

But it's you who'll have further to fall

Ghost town and haunted love

Raise your voice, sticks and stones may break my bones

I'm talking loud not saying much

I'm bulletproof, nothing to lose

Fire away, fire away

Ricochet, you take your aim

Fire away, fire away

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

I am titanium

I am titanium

Stone-heart, machine gun

Firing at the ones who run

Stone heart loves bulletproof glass

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

You shoot me down but I won't fall

I am titanium

I am titanium

Everyone in the room heard the passion and pain in their voices and they sang the song. Everyone could feel their pain and their courage in every word that they sang. The girls sniffled and turned to the bots.

"What do we do now? For once, I don't have a plan," Maple looked at Foliage hopefully. Foliage shook her head sadly. Maple sighed and hugged Foliage's human form. Foliage returned the hug.

"How come you can turn into a human?" Bulkhead asked, scratching his helm.

"I'm a Pretender, and Pretenders and morph into any species that they have encountered," Foliage stated flatly. Optimus cleared his throat.

"You femmlings can stay with us…." Optimus started to say but he was cutted off by the girls. Foliage jumped off her hoverboard and morphed back to her cybertronian form and hugged him. Maple just flew over and hugged his other side.

"Thanks…" they said gratefully. Optimus raised his optic ridges and hugged them back awkwardly since they were below his hip. The bots smiled at the cute scene and some of them "awwww".

"We have 2 berths for you…." Optimus started to say but he was cut off by Foliage.

"We can stay in a berth 'cause we like to sleep together!" Foliage said excitedly. The bots gaped at the girls, their mouths wide open.

"But won't you crush Maple, I mean you are huge compared to her," Arcee made a point. All of the bots murmured and agreed amongst themselves. They girls bursted out laughing and collapsed on the floor.

"AHAHAHAHA!" they curled up, well Maple curled up on her hoverboard and Foliage curled up on the floor, hugging her stomach and laughing. The bots shared a confused look.

" I'm a FUCKING PRETENDER!" Foliage shouted through her laughter. Everyone's optics widen at the crude use of language.

"Alright, you owe me 20 bucks bitch!" Maple stood up and extended her hand out to Foliage. She stood up and looked at Maple in surprise.

"Uh hello? We had the bet that whoever swears first has to pay the other 20 bucks!" Maple crossed her arms. Foliage rolled her optics and opened up her subspace.

"Fine!" she plucked a 20 from the wad of bills and gave it to her. Maple tucked that her her pocket. Then, she turned to the Autobots,

"What that asshole meant was that she's a Pretender so she can change into a human…" and she made the forward gestures with her hands.

"Ohhhhhh.." everyone in the room said except for Ratchet and Optimus. Ratchet finally tore his optics away from the computer and looked at them.

"How old are you?" Foliage and Maple stopped smiling and suddenly looked serious. Maple started twiddling her thumbs.

"Ummm, that's classified," Foliage answered, suddenly becoming very interested with her hands.

"We're both 10 years old," Maple spoke up and earned a glare from Foliage. The bots gaped at them, except for Ratchet and Optimus of course.

"Why did…." but she was cut off by Maple.

"Look, if we don't tell them now, they're gonna find out sooner or later and Ratchet has a scanner," she pointed towards Ratchet.

"How did you know I have a scanner?" Ratchet looked at them suspiciously and walked towards them slowly. They both stood their ground and Ratchet towered above them. Maple gulped.

"Cause you're a medic and medics have scanners?" Foliage asked doubtfully while Maple while she looked for something in her backpack. Maple took out a watch and looked at it.

"Oh! It's over 8 o'clock! We have to go to sleep!" she frantically called out and stood up on her hoverboard. Foliage looked at Maple in surprise.

"Huh?" she asked in surprised and she allowed Maple to push her towards the hallway. They only stopped to look back at Optimus.

"Where's our berth?" Maple asked Optimus.

"The one on your right, the passcode is 8472," and all he received was a thanks thrown over the shoulder. After their door was closed. The Autobots turned to discuss with eac hother.

"There's something that these girls are hiding, I can feel it from the way that Maple suddenly made their exit," Jazz said to Optimus.

"I know," he said softly, looking at their berth door.


	3. Not An Update

**Sorry guys for making you wait so long. I was on vacation so I couldn't upload. I'm currently working the next chapter right now. I will be able to right more when I get back to school. I promise I will upload at least once or twice a month. Big thanks to** **Don't judge me I'm a Fangirl and ShinraFox for following and favorting my story, it means a lot to me that people like my story! Until next time!**


	4. Darkness Rising Part:1

"Oh drive in, where every patty is a knockout! May I take your order? 2 combos, extra fries. Ok! Dois numero 2," Jack said over the microphone.

"Any else?"

"Yeah, some advice. How do I get an awesome job like yours?" The bullies laughed out loud.

"So that's two, 'we're not as funny as we think we are' combos, with a side of 'bite me' " Jack retorted and the bullies laughing ceased.

"What'd you say?" they drove to the counter, snatched the bags and drove off.

"Hey! You have to pay for that!" Jack protested but no avail. Jack sighed a blue motorcycle in the parking lot.

"Hello beautiful! Where have you been all my life?" Jack sat on the motorcycle and pretended to ride it.

"Are you talking to your motorcycle?" Jack looked up to see Sierra standing with her group of friends.

"My motorcycle? No, I mean, yes, yes! It's mine, but I-I'm not talking It Was to you I-I am" Jack stuttered, "How's things, Sierra? Take you for a spin sometime?"

"You know my name?" Sierra asked Jack suspsiciously. Who knows, he might be a stalker.

"We are in homeroom together. I am Jack, Jack Darby" Sierra nodded and left but before Jack could do anything, the motorcycle took off.

"Do not let go!" the motorcycle told Jack and he looked around in surprise.

"Who said that?!" Jack asked before the motorcycle lurched forwards once more. She stopped near a driveway and Jack got off.

"You tell anyone about me and I will hunt you down," Arcee told him but the drones suddenly started shooting at her.

"Scrap," she muttered before telling Jack to get on again. On the street, there was a boy racing his remote control car around. Jack got off and stood next to the boy.

"What are they?" Raf asked.

"Talking robots that turn into cars or the other way around," Jack said before Bumblebee was on the ground with a Vehicon on top of him. He was about to get offlined.

"Leave him alone!" Raf shouted at the Vehicon, catching his attention, "Please?". The vehicon was about to shoot at him but someone shot his back.

"Hey bitch!" Maple shouted, shooting him a couple more times

"Pick on someone your own size!" Foliage yelled before shooting him in the spark, offlining him instantly. They both looked over and saw that Bumblebee had already ushered the humans into a pipe for safety. She sighed in relief but was instantly ambushed by another Vehicon.

"Get off me!" panic rose in Foliage voice and she remember something from her past. Maple heard that and she immediately came over to help.

"Hey!" she yelled at it, shooting at its aft, "Come get me!" and the vehicon immediately ran after her. Foliage stood up, shaking but straightened up after she heard Maple's cries for help. She ran over and sucker punched him in the face, side kicked him and shot him in the head. Bulkhead arrived and looked at the scene.

"What took you?" Arcee asked him.

"Traffic," he replied and Arcee gave him a "really?" look. They transformed and took off, leaving the girls behind.

"Great, we have to walk all the way back!" Foliage groaned.

"At least this is better than most of the things we've gone through," Maple added.

"Yeah, you have a point," and they both sighed, trying to fend off unwanted memories from their mind. Unknown to them, the bots heard their conversation and they wondered what experiences did the girls had to go through before they met them.

/Girls, there will be a ground bridge under the human bridge/ Ratchet told them over comm and they ran towards the ground bridge and back to base. Foliage bend down and panted before looking at Maple.

"Why did you put yourself in danger!" Foliage shouted at Maple.

"Because you were going to die!" Maple countered back with concern in her eyes.

"I had it under control!" Foliage yelled in frustration before she took out her hoverboard and turned into her human form.

"You know as well as I do that you didn't have it under control," Maple said in a really soft voice, they engaged in a silent argument for a while before they broke off. Every in the base witness their argument.

"You're right, thanks for saving my ass," Foliage offered her a sad smile and they embraced each other.

"And the Cons would have been scrap metal if I hadn't been distracted by the human," Arcee reported to Optimus.

"Human?"

"Yeah! There were two boys!" Maple offered happily.

"I guess a second one caught us in action, I don't know. I was a little busy at the time," Arcee said uncertainly.

"If the Decepticons are targeting us, anyone perceived as our ally will be at grave risk," Optimus said wisely.

"A couple humans will slow us down!" Arcee protested.

"Seriously!" Maple looked at Arcee, "You've seen people die, you've travel all the way from Cybertron to here, you killed countless people and a couple humans are going to stop you from winning the war?"

"Yeah!" Foliage added on, "Maple's a human and she saved my life more times than you could imagine," she turned and looked at Maple fondly.

"My little savior,"


	5. Darkness Rising Part: 2

"Raf, hey" Jack called out to Raf after school the next day.

"Look lets just, keep this between us and forget anything ever happened, okay?" Jack told Raf in a serious manner before Bumblebee showed up.

"Oh no," Jack grumbled and Bumblebee beeped and whirred.

"He wants us to get in," Jack observed.

"No, just me" Raf clarified.

"How do you know?"

"It said so" and Raf started to get into Bumblebee, "Yours is over there," and Bumblebee speed off with Jack running after them.

"Raf!" but he was too slow. He turned around and saw Arcee parking just around the corner. Arcee lead him to an alley.

"Relax, I just wanna talk to you!" Arcee told Jack, none too carefully.

"Look I get it, first rule of robot fight club is you don't talk about robot fight club," Jack said quickly, "I don't want a bunch of crazy talking vehicles following me around trying to get me killed!"

Look, Jack, is it? Your personal safety is exactly why Optimus Prime has requested your presence!" Arcee's patience begun to wore thin.

"Optimus who?"

" You may be in danger because you are one of the few one of the only who have ever seen us" Arcee explain to Jack through gritted denta.

"What are you waiting for! Go with!" a girl's head popped out from a corner.

"Scrap!"

"I thought they were two?"

"Haven't you heard, humans multiply!" Arcee said sarcastically.

"I am Raf,"

"I am Miko,"

"Hi! I'm Foliage!" Foliage stood in front of them in her human form on her hoverboard.

"And my name is Maple!" Maple stood right next to her sister on her own hoverboard. Miko was about to say something but someone else caught her attention.

"Who are you?"

"Bulkhead.,"

"Are you a car? I bet you're a truck, a monster truck! Do you like heavy metal? How much do you weigh? Ever used a wrecking ball for a punching bag?" Miko looked like she was gonna burst with the speed that she was asking her questions.

"So if you guys are robots, who made you?" Raf asked innocently.

"Oh, puh-lease" Ratchet grumbled and earned himself a glare from the girls.

"We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron," Optimus leaned down to their level.

"They're also known as Autobots," Foliage added.

"Why are you here?" Jack boldly took a step forward.

"To protect your planet, from the Decepticons," was Optimus reply.

"The jokers who tried to bump us off last night?" Arcee clarified for Jack.

"Okay," Jack thought for a moment before coming up with another question.

"Why are they here?"

"A fair question, Jack," Optimus replied, "In part they are here because our planet is uninhabitable, ravaged by centuries of civil war," Optimus's optic's became a little distant but they focused back to reality once more. Foliage gently pushed Raf up.

"Why were you fighting a war?" Raf asked meekly, turning around to look at Foliage for reassurance.

"For most, over control of our world supply of energon," Optimus made eye contact with Raf.

"The fuel and life-blood of all Autobots, Decepticons, and Neutrals alike," Maple clarified, cutting Optimus's words. He gave her a stern stare but all she did was cheekily smile back.

"The combat was fierce and endured for centuries," Optimus's optics became little again, "In the beginning I fought alongside one who I considered a brother. But in war, ideals can be corrupted, and it was thus that Megatron lost his way,"

"Is there gonna be a quiz?" Miko interrupted, twirling her hair absentmindedly. The girls turned to her and gave her a high five.

"So what is Megatron Or any of these have to do with us?" Jack made another bold step towards Optimus.

"Megatron has not been seen or heard from in sometime," Optimus replied, "But if his return is imminent as I fear, it could be a catastrophic"

"Since you know about us, you're gonna need protection," Maple said before removing her both of her energon pistol from her waist and pretended to shoot an imaginary opponent.

"Got it, we spot any strange vehicles, call 91. Can we go now?" Jack asked impatiently.

"Are you insane? I'm living a dream here in Bots-wana and I will not allow you or anyone else to shatter it!" Miko shouted angrily at Jack.

"Yeah! You crazy!" Foliage shouted at him.

"What are you two doing here?" Jack turned and asked the girls.

"Look boy," Maple move forward on her hoverboard, "We have known about them more than you do,"

"It is best that you three remain under our watch," Optimus said quickly to avoid any more heated arguements.

"With all due respect, the human children are in as much danger here as anywhere!" Ratchet protested.

"Children?!"

"They have no protective shell! If they get underfoot they will go Squish!"

"Then for the time being, Ratchet, we must watch where we step," Optimus said calmly. A blaring sound filled the base making the humans and Foliage jump.

"What's that?" Miko asked.

"It's agent Fowler," Ratchet said from his computers. The girls winced as soon as they heard that name, hoping that no one would notice that.

"I-I thought we were the only humans who know about you guys," Jack asked nervously.

"Special agent Fowler is our designated liaison to the outside world, as he tends to visit only when there are issues," Optimus imformed Jack.

"It may be best if you do not meet him at this time," Jazz told the humans and the ran to the side off the hangar to hide except for the girls. Cliffjumper casted them a nervous look and tried to motion the girls to go into hiding but it was too late.

"Seven wrecks, thirty four fender benders…." Fowler stopped as soon as he saw the girls," and harboring criminals!"

"Criminals?" Sunstreaker asked in disbelief.

"Those two girls are being charged with illegal racing in 12 different states!" Fowler exclaimed, pointing at them.

"And Fowlie here is suppose to catch us and put us in juvie," Foliage said, putting up a bored face.

"Where's your motorcycle!?" Fowler asked them, leaning against the railing. Foliage and Maple looked at eachother, smirking before Foliage jumped up and turned into her alt mode, landing on her hoverboard. The humans looked at each other in awe as they watched they saw the scene unfold before them.

"Surprised Fowlie?" Foliage's voice came from her alt. She flickered her lights at Fowler teasingly.

"I don't get it," Sunstreaker grumbled. Fowler just stood there with his mouth open.

"Handle the Cons would you?" Fowler told Optimus before he entered the elevator and left in a dazed state. The girls laughed at his expression. The humans ran out of their hiding spot and everyone turned to look at the girls for an explanation.

"We did illegal racing in 12 different states," Foliage stated cooly.

"COOOL!" Miko screamed as she started running up the stairs to the hangar so she could see the girls better.

"May I ask why you did that?" Optimus's voice rang through the base, causing everyone to be silent.

"For the money," Maple explained "We needed money to survive and buy things," everyone tentatively listened to the girls. Alarms blared throughout the base.

"An unknown vehicon has appeared on our radar," Ratchet informed everyone.

"That's weird," Jazz observed and went over to check of the signal was actually true.

"Could be a fault in the system," Sunstreaker said.

"Fault or not, we must check it out," Optimus said wisely.

"Oh yeah!" the girls shouted together.

"Oh no, you two are staying here where you are safe," Cliffjumper wagged a finger at them.

"We're going whether you like it or not!" Maple argued back.

"We could always sneak out of base and join you later!" Foliage pointed out.

"You can accompany us be stay close," Optimus agreed as he also saw there was no way they could keep them back.

"What about us?" Miko perked up.

"You will stay here with Ratchet," Optimus said.

"AWWWW!" Miko and Ratchet whined at the same time. Ratchet fired up the ground bridge and everybot went through.


	6. Darkness Rising Part:3

"Energon mine! Judging by its scale the Decepticons have been tunneling here for quite some time," Arcee exclaimed and waited for Optimus's command.

"SUGAR CRUSH!" the girls yelled before the ran straight into battle. Everybot just gaped at the girls who were far far away battling vehicons.

"I'm starting to think they're crazier than the Twins!" Bulkhead commented.

"Let's not dwell on that matter now," Optimus ordered them "Autobots! Roll out!" and everybot charged into battle.

"Look! Up there!" Bumblebee beeped and pointed up towards a higher level of the energon mine. The girls were occupied from both sides and were fighting their way through. Occasionally, they would shout warnings to the other to move out of the way or to watch out but most of the time, the fought back to back dodging the blows from the enemy and delivering blow of their own. Vehicons lie dead at their feet and a few would fall and end with a thud as they land at the bottom of the energon mine.

"I'll go get them," Arcee offered and transformed into a blue motorcycle and speed up the energon mine, dodging the attacks from the decepticons while her partner, Cliffjumper tried his best to clear the way for her. Arcee jumped on one vehicon's shoulders and twisted its head of it's neck. Yells of triumph could be heard from the two girls slowly but surely cleared swarm of vehicons attacking them from both sides.

Arcee slashed her way through the vehicon crowd, catching them off guard because they were too focused on the girls to even notice her attacking them from behind.

"Are you two crazy!" Arcee shouted at the girls as she joined them in the middle and helped them hold of the upcoming wave of vehicons.

"YEP!" they shouted and leaned back to avoid another shot from the vehicons.

"The joint's gonna blow!" Sunstreaker yelled as he slashed another vehicons. Arcee was distracted for a second and a vehicon fell down and grabbed her arms. It's eyes were purple and it was yelling and mumbling incoherent words. Arcee shook her arms back and forth, trying to dislodge the vehicon from her arms but with no avail until Foliage shot the vehicon in the head. The vehicon finally slipped but the force of it falling down started to pull Arcee down at the same time.

"So this is how I'm going to die?" Arcee thought to herself as she was falling but strong arms grabbed her. She looked up and saw Foliage holding her with both of her arms.

"Let go!" Foliage told her urgently.

"Are you crazy!?" Arcee yelled back and Foliage started to slip.

"Trust me!" and Foliage let go of Arcee. Arcee started to fall down only to land with a thump on her feet on something. She looked down and saw a very big hoverboard with Maple on it, controlling it with her mind and bringing it to the ground. Maple turned around and gave Foliage a thumbs up and she smiled back. But none of them noticed the drop of the purple liquid dripping right on top of Maple's head.

The purple liquid landed on Maple's head and she collapsed, the hover board collapsing with her. Arcee reach her arms out just in time to catch the now unconscious Maple in her metal hands. Foliage let out a yell of rage and jumped from the ledge, transforming and speeding across the mine.

"Autobots, roll out! Ratchet! Bridge us back! Use the arrival coordinates Now!" Optimus shouted through the commlink and a ground bridge appeared in front of them as they made it just in time before the mine blew up.


	7. Darkness Rising Part:4

"Cutting it a bit close," Ratchet told them after they nearly escaped their deaths from the Decepticon mine. Foliage snatched Maple from Arcee's hand placed her on one of the metal berths and standing on her knees.

"Come on girl," she prodded her gently with her smooth metal fingers "Wake up!" she voice started cracking as she prodded Maple a little harder but she got no response from her.

"Let me see," Ratchet said firmly as he pushed her out of the way. He examined her and scanned her.

"She has been poisoned with something," Ratchet started to say but he was cut off by Foliage.

"What did she get poisoned by!" Foliage yelled urgently, searching Ratchet's face for any kind of reaction.

"I'm afraid I don't know," Ratchet said gravelly. Foliage got down on her knees again and started muttering somethings. At last, she laid her head on the metal cot and started to cry softly, energon tears leaking down her face and to the floor.

Suddenly, a blue light appeared from inside her chest plates, lifting her up in the air and her eye glowed blue. The blue light reached towards Maple, created strands up light that wrapped itself around her body until she was covered by a blue light. The blue light shone brighter and brighter until it was so bright, everyone in the room had to cover their eyes. The blue light exploded and retreated back into Foliage's chest plate and she lowered down into the ground, her head rested on her hand on the metal cot next a new femme, lying on her side with her optics close.

The new femme is a maple syrup color with dark swirls running all over her body. She has a round face and gold outlining everything. Foliage is an emerald green color and she also had gold outlining her body. She also has a round face.

Everyone stood in silence, shocked by things that just happened before their very eyes.

"What the-" Sideswipe started to say but Maple and Foliage's optics started to blink and Maple sat up and looked at everyone. Maple looked at everyone around the room and leaned her head to one side quizzically. Then, she looked down at Foliage.

"Is it me or are you smaller?" she asked Foliage. Foliage's optic widen as she looked at her friend's new form.

"Uhhh, you just turn into a robot.." she said slowly.

"HAHAHAHA," Maple started to laugh but she saw that her friend was dead serious, "So I'm a cybertronian," she looked at Foliage and she nodded slowly. Maple nodded slowly, trying to comprehend what she was being told.

"OHHH MY GOD! I'M A CYBERTRONIAN!" Maple shouted out in happiness and jumped up and down, hopping from place to place and shouted the same thing again in everyone's faces. The she jumped over to where Foliage is and lifted her up.

"We're like identical sisters!" Maple exclaimed and that was when everyone in the room notice how alike they were. They only thing different about them is their paintjob. Arcee fainted and Bumblebee supported her.

"What is this?" Ratchet asked Arcee as he saw a puddle of the purple liquid pool at her feet.

"I don't know but the vehicon was leaking in it," Arcee said faintly.

"Go take a decontamination bath now!" Ratchet ordered her and she stumbled into through the control room and into the hallways. When Arcee left the room, everyone turned to stare at the girls.

"What-how!" was all that Ratchet could say and he went up to them and repeatedly scanned from front to back.

"I don't understand, how could you" Ratchet pointed at Foliage," turned her", and Ratchet moved his digit so her was pointing at Maple," into a cybertronian!" Jack looked like he was about to say something but he stopped himself.

"Uhh, I don't know either," Foliage stated the obvious, making Ratchet groaned even more. They looked at each other and shrugged. Ratchet took one last time scan and gasped. He was about to say something Jack spoke up first.

" O-Optimus," Jack stuttered, "I-I hate to bug, but - No bars," Ratchet groaned and threw up his hands in frustration.  
"A security precaution," Jazz explained, "The silo walls isolate all radiowaves,"  
"Well, if I don't call my mom like now," Jack told them with urgency laced in his voice, "I'm pretty sure cops will be out looking for me,"  
"Have you broken a law?" Sunstreaker asked, his face shone in amusement. Sideswipe shared the same look with his brother and they silently conversed through their spark bond.

"A curfew," Jack said, crushing their hopes, "It's after ten p.m,"  
"I better get home too, or I'll be grounded for a year," Raf said worriedly.  
Earth customs," Optimus said and sighed inwardly,"I hadn't considered," Optimus's shoulders sagged a little bit.  
"But the issue of your safety remains," Optimus straightened up and got in his an I-order-you posture.  
"Bulkhead!" Optimus directed his voice at the bewildered bot, "Accompany Miko home,"  
"Awesome! My host parents will freak!" Miko jumped up in happiness, thinking about what would happen when her host parents saw Bulkhead.

"And maintain covert surveillance in vehicle form," Optimus added, crushing another person's hopes. Miko bore a frown on her face but smiled when Bulkhead transformed and opened his doors.  
"Curbside duty, got it," Bulkhead said after Miko practically bounced in his interior and he reversed and drove straight out of the base.  
"Bumblebee!" Optimus called out to Bumblebee, "You'll watch over Raf," Bumblebee nodded and transformers, letting Raf cautiously climb into him and drove off.  
"Ratchet!" Optimus's optics landed on Ratchet's back.

"Busy!" Ratchet retorted.

"Arcee!," Optimus's eyes landed on the now sitting Arcee, "You'll accompany Jack,"  
"Ooh, still dizzy," Arcee tried to feigned sickness but her hopes were crushed when Ratchet said:  
"You're fine!" Ratchet muttered, "Says your physician!" Arcee groaned and trudged over to where Jack was standing and transformed. Jack slid his legs over the motorcycle and Arcee speed off. After they left, all eyes were on the girls. They fidgeted with their hands and put on leg behind the other and looked towards the ground.

"As I was saying earlier," Ratchet grumbled, "If _Jack_ hadn't rudely interrupted me, these two girls show signs of the Allspark," everybot's jaws dropped open except for Optimus. He had put on his battle mask a while ago and inside, his mouth was wide open but he didn't show his expressions, not even his optics gave away anything about his current state.

"Um," Foliage stuttered, "What in the world is a fucking Allspark," after she said that, everybot's optics looked like they wanted to pop out of their sockets.

"You don't know what the Allspark is?" Sideswipe asked in disbelief. The girls just shook their heads.

"But, but you're a cybertronian!" Sunstreaker exclaimed. Foliage sighed and shook her head.

"I may be a cybertronian but that doesn't mean I know your culture and things," Foliage explained slowly, "I was raised on Earth,"

"May I ask who?" Optimus asked them gently, not really expecting an answer because they didn't have to and by their actions yesterday, they're hiding something from everyone. Both girl's eyes cast downwards and they didn't reply.

"That is not important right now," Maple said after a moment of awkward silence, "We need to know what this Allspark is," she looked at Optimus right in the optics as if she wanted to dare him to go against her wishes.

"Cybertronians have two ways of replenishing our populations," Optimus started explaining to them. The Twins rolled their eyes and shuffled around a bit. Foliage and Maple looked uncomfortable for a second but they quickly hid it and looked bored instead. They thought no one noticed their quick reaction but Optimus and Ratchet saw their moment of uncomfortableness with their quick optics.

"One of they ways is from the Allspark," Optimus paused and looked at the girls to see if they're following along with him. They nodded and motioned him to keep going.

"Cybertronians appear from the Allspark and sparklings and get adopted by a family that can care for them," Optimus finished his where-you-might-have-came-from lesson.

"Seriously!", Maple exclaimed, "That's it!"

"Even if that all," Foliage quickly said as soon as she saw the hurt and angry faces on the bots's faces, "How did the baby machine get in us?"

"Baby machine?" Cliffjumper snorted. The girls gave them a "what!" look.

"It's not a machine," Optimus started to explain, again. On the inside, he was chuckling at the innocence of those girls. "It's a liquid inside the Well of Allsparks that creates the sparklings,"

"Ohhhh," both girls nodded in understanding.

"But still!" Maple protested, "How could a liquid thing from Cybertron get all the way to Earth?"

"Yeah!", Foliage agreed with her friend, "That's like impossible!"

"We don't know how but it's just inside of you," Ratchet told them, "That would explain how Foliage turned Maple into a cybertronian," Ratchet scientifically deducted the hypothesis, "For all we know, they could more abilities that we might not know of," everyone in the room ran the ideas through their processor, trying to process the information that was laid out before them. Another awkward moment passed everyone in the room. The girls switched their positions several times, the Twins conversed with each other through their spark bond and sometimes, their emotions leaked out onto their face. Everyone else had their optics trained on an unknown spot in the room and ran the ideas through their processor multiple times.

"Um, we're gonna go to sleep," Foliage told them after a while. Maple nodded and they backed away from the room and went into their room.

"Did anyone notice that they're uncomfortable in our presence?" Jazz asked everyone after they quietly closed their door.


	8. Darkness Rising Part:5

Jack woke up to the rumbling of Arcee's engine. He jumped out of bed, hastily brushed his teeth and put on his clothes before running down down the stairs and throwing open the garage door.

"Shh!" Jack shushed arcee,"Are you crazy?! You'll wake up my mom!"

"Grab your helmet, it's go time," Arcee merely answered. Jack sighed, grabbed his helmet and got on Arcee.  
"You can watch cartoons back at base with Bumblebee," Arcee offered. She showed no signs of her feelings from yesterday's argument.  
"Cartoons!" Jack protested, "I'm sixteen!"

"And leave a note for your mom!" Arcee added, "She worries!" Jack sighed. He walked back into the house and hastily scribbled a note and stuck it to the fridge using a magnet. He let his eyes linger over the picture of his parents and him smiling at an amusement park. He let a sad smile appear on his face and ran outside. Arcee reeved up her engines and sped off, leaving a cloud of dust behind her. She accelerated as soon as she got to the outskirts of Jasper.

"H-Hey! What's with you, Arcee?" Jack stuttered, tightening his hold on the black handles.

"I thought you might actually enjoy the ride if we weren't getting shy at it," Arcee teased him and accelerated even more.

 _Meanwhile_  
"Oh, bring it!" Miko yelled enthusiastically, "Ready, set…"

"Miko!" Bulkhead protested, "I'm supposed to be protecting you,"  
"Bulkhead," Miko chided him, "I'm strapped tight inside ten tons of metal muscle! I'm protected,"

"Ok.." Bulkhead said uncertainty and accelerated down the rocky slope. Miko whoopped and yelled every time they passed bump on the rocky slope.

 _Meanwhile_  
"No fair, Bumblebee!" Raf protested playfully, "You've been driving a lot longer than I have!" Bumblebee replied with a series of beeps and bloops, making Raf laugh cheerfully.

 _At the base_

"Thank goodness for peace and quiet!" Ratchet muttered to himself as he moved a test tube to another rack, "Houseguests can be such a bother!" A drop of the purple gloo fell on the broken spider machine below him and it whirred to life. It quietly followed Ratchet and pushed of the shelf, slapping Ratchet in the face.

"Wha?" Ratchet yelled out in surprise, "Optimus?" Ratchet called out for his friend's help and he tried to shoot the machine. The machine skillfully dodge his shots, breaking his equipment along the way.

"By the Allspark!" Rachet yelled in frustration, "I needed that!" Right about then, the girls ran out of the hallways to investigate the peculiar yells coming from the hangar. They saw the evil machine and immediately switched to their robot form and killed it simultaneously. Optimus emerged from the hallways with Cliffjumper, Jazz, and the twins all armed and prepared for battle.

"And stay broken!" Ratchet huffed, "Now, what could have caused that?!"

"I have a grave suspicion, Ratchet" Optimus said gravelly, "Its.."

"Dark Energon," the girls said at the exact same time. Everyone looked at the girls in surprise.

"How do you know?" Cliffjumper asked them, awe was showing on his face plates.  
"If the residue Arcee found on Cliffjumper brought your broken equipment to life, it would stand to reason that the very same substance brought the vehicon back from the dead," Optimus said, cutting the opportunity for the girls to reply.  
That would account for it's life signal inexplicably coming back online," Ratchet said, understanding exactly what Optimus was talking about, "But Dark Energon? It's so scarce seems to be virtually non-existent!"  
"What would it be doing on Earth?" Jazz asked, putting his hands on his hips and leaning his head to one side.

"It was transported!" Cliffjumper said, clapping his hands together.  
"For what purpose?" Sunstreaker asked, voicing Sideswipe's question, too.

"To conquer this planet, by raising an army of the undead," Maple said, using a spooky voice like she was telling a ghost story.

"How do you know?" Sideswipe asked them with his eyes narrowed.

"A voice in my head," Maple said, pointing to her helm. She seemed to shrink back at his gaze but straightened and made herself tougher, backed up by Foliage glaring at Sideswipe.

"Well, Megatron would need to break quite a few toaster ovens," Jazz jokes, glancing at both sides warily. They did not need a fight at such an important time as this.  
I mean, where on this world would he find that many cybertronian dead?" Cliffjumper said, catching on what Jazz was hinting at. He was in a position where he could jumped in and stopped the fight between the two sides, if necessary.

"That was awesome!" Miko yelled as she jumped out of Bulkhead.

"Can we do it again?" Raf asked Bumblebee quietly. Bulkhead's chest compartments opened to reveal Miko's guitar.

"Sorry!" Miko said apologetically, "Must have left that in the back seat!"

"Autobots, prepare to"

"Roll out?" Arcee asked

"Remain here," Optimus said with authority, "Ratchet, you'll come with me,"  
"Arcee, we'll be outside communications range for some time so I'm putting you in charge," Optimus placed the burden of leader on Arcee's small shoulders for the time being.  
"Dude, You're biggest," Miko peeped up, "You should be the boss!"

"Err," Bulkhead hesitated, "He never picks me,"  
"Optimus With all due respect," Sunstreaker said.  
"Playing bodyguard is one thing, babysitting's another!" Sideswipe complained.

"Don't worry Sides," Foliage said

"We're gonna bodyguard them, not you" Maple added.  
"Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the fields since the war," Arcee added, completely ignoring the girl's comments.  
"My pistons may be rusting, but my hearing is sharp as ever!" Ratchet retorted.

"For the moment it's only reconnaissance," Optimus said, easing a beginning of an argument into an event in the past.  
"And why do I hear an edge in your voice?" Arcee retorted, clearly demanding an answer from her leader.

"Arcee, much has changed in the last 24 hours, and we all need to adapt," Optimus said patiently, "Things changing means we also need to consider protection for our 2 youngest" Optimus turned and looked at the girls.

"The motherfucking what!" Foliage protested.

"Are you fucking kidding me!" Maple shouted, "We fucking took care of our fucking selves for longer than you've fucking imagined!"

"And been in more shitty situations!" Foliage added, her optics dulled for just a second but it lit back up again, "Anyways, you can't tell us what to do!"

"Cliffjumper, Foliage is your new charge," Optimus said, ignoring their crude language, "And Jazz, take care of Maple," Cliffjumper and Jazz nodded and smiled at Foliage. Jack cringed at their use of language and moved behind Raf.

"You're not our fucking babysitters," Foliage told Cliffjumper coldly.

"And we're not going to listen to you, bitch", Maple glared at Optimus, Cliffjumper, and Jazz with cold optics. Jack had covered Raf's ears right when Foliage started talking in colorful language.

"Ratchet! Bridge us out!" Ratchet and Optimus walked into the ground bridge and disappeared.

"OK, chief so, what's on the activities list?" Jack asked Arcee.

"I'm going on patrol," Arcee told him.  
"But Optimus told us to stay," Jack protested.  
"When you are in charge you can call the shots," Arcee said firmly, "Bee! With me! Jazz, you're in charge,"  
"So what's on the activities list?" Foliage asked them, transforming into a human along with Maple.

"How about band practice?" Miko suggested enthusiastically.

"But we are not a band," Raf softly protested.

"Why so antisocial?" Miko asked him, "Come on, Raf, do you play anything?"

"Hmm keyboard?"

"Laptops and samples, good! Jack?"

"I, sometimes mess around on the harmonica,"  
"Do I look like I do country!" Miko retorted, "Just cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming,"

"What do you girls do?" Miko looked at the girls expectantly.

"We sing," Maple told her. The girl's moods haven't improved since they got assigned to their guardians.  
"Bulkhead! Percussion! We'll go for a big industrial sound," Miko directed a very confused Bulkhead, "DIY, we are a band! You just need to learn the songs,"

"This one's a ballad, 'My fist, your face'" Miko strummed a chord on her electric guitar. Suddenly, alarms bleeped throughout the base with it's screeching sound.  
"Come on! You can't handle raw power?" Miko asked the bots.

"Proximity sensor," Jazz said seriously.  
"Quick, hide!" Cliffjumper said urgently. The kids ran and hid behind Bulkhead's feet. The girls just stood there in their human form and looked up at the hangar.

"Prime!" Fowler yelled.

"Agent Fowler," Cliffjumper greeted coolly.  
"Uh," Sunstreaker said.  
"He's not here," said Sideswipe, "Nobody's here,"  
"Except us, of course," Maple said, covering up Sideswipe mistake.  
"Wh-, where did he go?" asked Agent Fowler, perplexed, "Wait, don't tell me, He's out pancaking a mini-mall!" the girls snorted when he said that and he glared at them.

"Now, I don't know what language you 'Bots speak on your planet, but Prime promised he would handle the Decepticons, and blowing a crater in the middle of Nebraska is not what the word 'handle' means to me!" Agent Fowler ranted and an the electric string and the noise of Miko's electric guitar caught his attention.

"Since when are you, 'Bots, electric?" Agent Fowler asked suspiciously. Jack looked at Miko and glared at her before taking a deep breathe and he stepped out from behind Bulkhead's leg.

"Hey! How are you doing?" Jack waved at him nervously.

"Contact with civilians!" Agent Fowler exclaimed, "Wait, don't tell me! You are running a daycare center!" Agent Fowler was ready to blow a fuse.

"Hummm," Jack stuttered, "We are interns,"  
"Student interns," Miko clarified.  
"Earning extra credits in Mechanics!"

"Robotics!" Miko and Jack said at the same time. Agent Fowler shook his head.

"OK Let's move! I'm taking all three of you into federal custody," Agent Fowler said, "For your own protection,"  
"We are protecting them," Jazz protested.  
"Is that so?" Agent Fowler said sarcastically, "Well, maybe you can explain that to my superiors at the Pentagon"!  
"Don't use that phone!" Sideswipe said cheekily.

"It's," Sunstreaker pushed his big digit into the phone booth, "Out of order,"  
"This isn't over, Big Bot," Agent Fowler wagged a finger at the Twins, "Not by a long shot! Agent Fowler left the room with a big frown on his face. Everyone in the room let out a sigh of relief. The alarms blared again, for a second time.

"It's an S.O.S." Jazz informed everyone, "From Fowler,"  
"Did you trace it?" Cliffjumper asked.

"Location scan in uncomplete,"  
"Oh, well," Bulkhead said.  
"Oh, well?" Miko exclaimed, "Seriously?!"

"Fowler's a jerk!" Sunstreaker protested.

"Whether you like the guy or not," Maple told them, "The Decepticons may have it!"

"And Agent Fowler knows your location," Raf pointed out.

"Our location!" Foliage literally screamed.

"And did we not just witnessed how fast Fowler backs down from a Bot!" Miko said, "The 'Cons will totally make him squeal!"

"But we lost the transmission," Jazz explained patiently, "Fowler could be anywhere!"  
Maybe I can near it down," Raf said, pulling out his laptop, "About five years ago the Government started microchipping their agents," Everyone looked at him funny. "You know, like owners do with pets. What? I saw it on TV,"  
"Anyway, if I can hack into the Fed's mainframe maybe I can pinpoint Fowler's coordinates,"  
"You know how to hack?" Miko protested, "But you're like two years old!"

"Twelve," Raf corrected, "And a quarter," Raf got back to typing codes on his computer, trying to locate Agent Fowler's current position.  
"Latitude 39.5, Longitude 116.9." Raf told them after doing dome harcore coding.  
"OK, wait here," Jazz ordered them and everybot charged straight through the groundbridge.  
"Don't break up the band!" Miko whined.

"You're not leaving without us!" Foliage said and the girls ran after them.

"Jack, you're in charge!" Maple yelled and the two girls dissapeared into the groundbridge.

"Guess we three have run out the place," Jack looked around, "Miko? Miko!"

 _The Decepticon War Ship_

"The whole Decepticon shipbay," Sunstreaker said nonchantly.  
"Alright! What's the plan?" Miko's head popped up from behind some rocks.

"Miko!" Bulkhead exclaimed and looked up when he heard shooting.

"SUGAR CRUSH!" the girls shouted and ran into battle, shooting furiously at the vehicons.  
"Miko, get down!", Bulkhead yelled as he was trying to deal with a vehicon and get a good look at his charge.

"Hold him still!" Miko encouraged.

"Miko, look away!"

"But,"

"Turn your head away!" Bulkhead stuck his hands into the vehicon and pulled out it's cables. Miko's eyes sparkled in wonder and excitement and she quickly took a picture of the scene.

 _Meanwhile_

"You are where?!...She is where?!"

"What should we do?", Raf asked worriedly, "Bulkhead may have not even realized she'd followed him!"  
"Miko hasn't seen the 'Cons in action like we have," Jack told him with a dead serious tone, "She has no idea," Jack ran towards the groundbridge. "You're in charge!"

"In charge of who?" Raf asked and he ran after Jack, leaving the empty base.

"Arcee to base, come in," Arcee's voiced echoed in the empty base, "Jack? Listen up, we need you to bridge us back," but she got no reply. Arcee grumbled.  
"Bumblebee, metal to the pedal!"

"What's taking Arcee and Bumblebee?" Cliffjumper asked as he quickly shot another vehicon in the head.

"Dude, the cons could be putting the clamps on Fowler right now!" Maple shouted through the storm of flying energon bullets, "Let's just storm the ship! The girls ran towards the entrance of the ship and wuickly disappeared inside. Both newly assigned guardians groaned. They were supposed to watch after their charges but they already let them run into the Nemesis!

Jack and Raf ran from the groundbridge and hid behind some rocks. Very stealthily, they ran from rock to rock until they were running up the purple ramp that lead inside the Nemesis. Before they could go any further

"Hey you!" A vehicon blocked their way. He bended down to pick them up and reported them to his boss.

"Get in, now!" Bulkhead hurriedly scooped up his charge and placed her gently in his chest compartment.

"Thanks, Bulkhead," Miko said before he closed his chest compartment and ran into the Nemesis. Luckily, he saw the vehicon holding Jack and Raf it's hands before it could take them further into the warship. He shot down the unsuspecting vehicon in 3 shots.

"Yeah, thanks," Jack gasped. The remaining bots ran into the warship after finishing off the vehicons.

"Wh-what are you doing here?" Jazz asked.

"We were worried about Miko," Raf told him.

"Have you seen her?" Jack asked worriedly.

"What's she look like?" Miko popped out of Bulkhead's chest compartment and said cheekily. More shots were coming from inside the warship and it was getting louder by the second. Foliage and Maple slid from the hallway to the right and shot blindly down the hallway. Several clanks were heard after the shots rang out and there were no more sounds.

"Everyone out!" Foliage yelled and ran back into the hallway they came in. Everyone followed the girls and the ran into an unoccupied room.

"And this time, please, wait here?" Cliffjumper told them exasperatedly.

"Where is Miko? Miko?" Bulkhead looked around. Bulkhead's chest compartment opened and a very green Miko popped out.

"I heaved on your floor mats," Miko covered her mouth and her cheeks puffed out. Arcee and Bumblebee's head popped into the doorway.

"Friendly!" Arcee shouted and put her hand to her side.

"We need to find Fowler and get these kids out of here," Maple told her. Miko was about to protest but Jack pinched her arm and glared at her.

"You're a kid,"Sunstreaker told her and earned himself a glare from Foliage.

"He's in the brig," Foliage clarified, still glaring at Sunstreaker.

"He's in the brig," Arcee repeated, "Clear," Arcee looked at the girls and the humans "Wait in here," Everyone followed her out of the room, including the girls.

"They're slowing us down and they're easy targets," Arcee told them, "They'll be alright in here, as long as they stay put," she glared at the girls.

"I told you to stay put!"

"Sorry _Arcee_ ," Foliage said sassily, "You're not the boss of us," Maple folded her hands and looked and Arcee right in the eye. It was unnerving for Arcee to look and femmelings who were a little bit shorter than her.

"That, was intense," Miko said happily.

"It's your fault that we're stuck in this intensity," Jack scolded her, "What were you thinking, Miko?"

"Did I ask you to follow me?"

"You wanted us to be a band!"

"Doesn't that usually mean to play together?!"

"Well, maybe I decided to go solo!"

"Well, maybe I have some regard for your safety!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's your name "Optimus"?", Miko retorted, "You can leave my protection to Bulkhead, thank you very much!"

"Stop it!" Raf cried, "Both of you!" Raf ran to the ledge and sat down with his head between his legs.

"H-hey, Raf," Jack consoled, "Raf, it's it's OK,"

"Yeah, we're gonna be fine," Miko told him gently, "Our bots will come back for us!"

"Yeah, they're gonna take us home,"

"How do you know?" Raf asked sadly and sniffled.

"Hey, Raf, what do you make of that?" Jack pointed to an alien diagram on an alien computer.

"It's important," Raf said standing up, "Really important,"

"Well?" Miko asked Raf after he looked over the alien diagram.

"We've got to get this to Optimus," Raf said urgently.

"How do you know it isn't just a recipe for space-nachos?" Miko asked him.

"I know math when I see it," Raf told her, "And that is one serious equation,"

"Can you download it?" Jack asked him.

"I've got a flash drive," Raf pulled out his flash drive, "But I don't see anywhere to plug it in. This tech is way too alien," A vehicon walked by the room and saw the humans standing on the ground. It pulled up it's blasters and pointed at them.

"The evil said yeah!" Miko yelled excitedly.

"Miko, take a picture!" Jack yelled, dodging a shot that was meant to hit him.

"Great idea!" Miko took a flash photo of the vehicon that was approaching her menacingly, "Hey, you!"

"Not of that!" Jack yelled at her and pointed to the alien diagram, "Of THAT!" The vehicon sharted shooting at Raf. Foliage and Maple ran through the doorway and and shot the vehicon in the spark.

"Go! Go! Go!" Foliage yelled and made the hand gesture that you make so people could move quicker.

"I told you to stay put!" Arcee yelled at them.

"I like pie," Agent Fowler's head popped out of Jazz's hands, "You wish up a pie?"

"You found Fowler!" Miko yelled excitedly, "Rock on!" a groundbridge appeared in front of them and everyone ran through. Ratchet and Optimus were waiting at the base and looked at Jazz expectantly.

"What happened to you guys anyway?" Miko asked curiously.

"We engaged an army of undead cybertronian warriors,"Ratchet told her everything that happened to him and Optimus in a nutshell.

"Zombies? You fought zombies, and I missed it?"

"Jazz," Optimus said sternly, "You exercised extremely poor judgment in allowing the humans to accompany you,"

"It won't happen again, Optimus," Jazz told him, "I promise,"

"But it wasn't his fault," Foliage protested.

"Foliage, please!"

"But it's true!" Maple protested, "We had to go rescue Agent Fowler or else the humans will kill you! Literally!"

"Yeah!", Foliage added, "When humans don't understand, they are afraid, and when they're afraid, they will kill!"

"Imagine 7 billion humans after all of you! Bots and Cons alike!"

"And check it out!", Miko interrupted and showed her phone. The girls crossed their arms and looked grouchy, "Ratchet, have a look!"

"It could be of importance to Megatron," Ratchet said, closely examining the hurriedly taken picture from the Nemesis.

"Woah, Megatron's back?" Jack asked, "That's really bad news, right?"

"I don't understand," Ratchet said confusedly. Miko looked at her phone screen.

"That's the 'Con who tried to blow Raf away," Miko said, "At least that's what he looked like before Foliage and Maple rearranged his grill!"

"Miko!" Jack said exasperatedly, "Raf was almost killed! This isn't a game! When are you gonna get that through your thick skull?"

"Hm we were all almost killed, Jack," Miko explained not so gently, "You, me, Raf even them!"

"Well, if this was just an average day with the Autobots then I don't wanna be a part of it," Jack said, "Not anymore,"

"Jack, putting you in harm's way was never our intent," Optimus said, a little sadness creeped into his voice, "However, it is no longer the safety of you three that is at risk but the safety of all humankind," Optimus told him. "We will respect your decision if you wish to leave,"

"No point in long good-byes," Ratchet said as he fired up the groundbridge, "Here's the door," Jack started to go through the groundbridge but he looked back at Raf.

"Come on, Raf," Raf hesitated for a moment and looked at Bumblebee.

"I'll be OK, Jack,"

"See you at school," Jack said disappointed.

"Sure thing," Arcee stepped forward and looked at Jack.

"I know, you don't exist.

"Don't make me hunt you down," Arcee warned lightly. Jack nodded and he started to go again but someone pulled him back. He turned around to see Foliage and Maple in their human forms.

"Look Jackass," Foliage said, "Running away from fear is never gonna work,"

"Uh hu," Maple added, "The only way to get rid of your fear is to walk right up to it and punch it in the face,"

"Because if you run away from fear, it will always come back to you,"

"You can never outrun fear,"

"So it's your choice, run away for it to catch up to you again, or punch it in the face,"

"You only live once," Upon saying that Maple and Foliage turned around and walked away, never once looking back or at anyone until they reached their room and closed their door. WHile they gave him that short lecture, Jack stood dumbfounded. He shook his head and entered the groundbridge, disappearing at last.


	9. Darkness Rising Part:6

"Now I understand why you had to rush home," Miko surprised Jack as he getting on his bike to go home after his shift.

"Don't you have something more exciting to do, Miko?" Jack asked.

"So, this is where you hang, uh?" Miko asked rhetorically, "Back home in Tokyo I have loving parents and two purebred cats, Chi Chi and Ding Dong," she continued on, "I went to the best school to piano lessons since I was three,"

"How nice for you,"

"No, how boring,"

"It wasn't me," Miko continued, "Why do you think I jumped at the chance of transfer here?"

"To Jasper, Nevada?"," Jack said sarcastically, "The entertainment capital of the world?"

"Yeah, well, the brochure lied," Miko took and deep breathe and sat down next to Jack, "Piano lessons were starting to look pretty good in fact. But then, the last couple of days happened,"

"Do you have a point?"

"You bet," Miko looked at him straight in the eyes, "I saw what you did today, when you saved Raf, when you came to save me,"

"I've been raised to be responsible," Jack replied, "To my schoolwork, to my mom, my job,"

"Dude, hear me out!", yelled Miko, "You're no fry-cook, you're a rockstar! Stop trying to pretend you're normal, Jack! You'll never fit in! You were born to do so much more!"

"Thanks, Miko, but I think normal suits me fine," Jack stood up and pedaled away, leaving Miko in the dust.

 _Meanwhile..._

"It can't be Optimus!" Ratchet exclaimed, "These are engineering specs for a space-time vortex generator,"

"Megatron is building a Space Bridge," Foliage said sarcastically, "How great for us!"

"If he hasn't already," Maple mumbled.

"The sooner he leaves, the better!" Bulkhead said.

"Bulkhead a Space Bridge runs in two directions," Optimus explained, "Megatron may not be using it to leave Earth, but to bring through his conquering army.

"The main event Megatron referred to," Ratchet said.

"Does the main event include good food?" Foliage joked and Maple cracked up. The girls high-fived each other, earning them a glare from Ratchet. The stuck their tongue out at him.

"But the only place Megatron could possibly recruit that many fallen warriors.." Jazz started but looked at Optimus for confirmation.

"Precisely, Cybertron," Optimus said.

"Megatron is building a fucking Space thingy to bring through his shitty army," Maple summarized.  
"But the only place Megatron could get that many fucking dead warriors is Cybertron," Foliage said.

"I got what Megabitch is about to do," Maple said clearing her throat, "He's gonna get that shitty Space thingy to open and throw his purple shit over to get more fucking Cons,"

"Great!" Foliage said sarcastically, everyone stared at the girls.  
We cannot allow Megatron to send Dark Energon through his Space Bridge," Optimus told everyone, "If we fail, the dead of Cybertron will rise,"  
"Swarm through its vortex and invade Earth," Cliffjumper said.  
"Bending humankind to Megatron's twisted rule," Jazz said darkly. The Twins grunted to show that they understood. The girls looked at each in excitement.

"I'm happy," Foliage said. Everbot and humans stared at her in shock except for Miko who just smiled very widely.

"What?"

"What she meant is that there's more people for her to," Maple pretended to think for a moment," to finish off," Foliage smiled and high-fived her sister. The Twins laughed.

"I like your style!" Sideswipe told them. The girls just shrugged and smirked. Ratchet closed and opened his mouth. He shook his head and turned back to his computer.

Optimus, I've pinpointed the location of Megatron's Space Bridge," Ratchet informed everyone, "High in Earth's orbit and out of our reach,"  
Ok, so you guys don't fly but can't you just ground-bridge there?" Miko asked, stating the obviously. The girls nodded their heads.

"The Ground Bridge has limited range," Ratchet clenched his denta, "Stretch all the way into orbit its vortex could snap and scatter us to the stars,"  
Since Megatron is likely already in transit, I'm afraid we must take that risk," Optimus told his friend, "Reaching the Space Bridge first is our only means of stopping him,"  
"Hey, guess who's back!" Jack said nervously. The girls nodded in his direction.

"Autobots, prepare for departure,"  
"Where to?" Jacka asked.

"The final frontier," Miko said dramatically.  
"Space? I thought they didn't have any way to get there?"

"They don't, really," Jack turned his head towards Arcee.  
"Be seen you?" Arcee nodded.

"Be careful, 'Bee," Raf waved.  
"I'm so jealous!" Miko yelled.  
"Don't even think about following me," Bulkhead warned her.

"Optimus, if you leave me stranded on a planet teeming with humans, I will never forgive you," Ratchet warned, waving his wrench in the air.  
"Until we meet again, old friend," Optimus merely replied, "Autobots, roll out!" The girls cracked their knuckles. Jazz and Cliffjumper stood in front of them.

"That includes you," Jazz said sternly to both of them. The girls smiled at each other and they both flipped Jazz and Cliffjumper over their head and ran through the ground bridge yelling:

"Maximum overdrive!", Optimus ordered and rolled one his wheels into the groundbridge. When they reached the other side, the girls were already there and they were floating around in space.

"Autobots, transform and gravitize," Optimus said and before he could do anything, Jazz and Cliffjumper pushed themselves forward and grabbed the two girls by their arms while gravitating.

"What were you thinking!" Cliffjumper scolded.

"Simple," they replied sassily, "We weren't" the girls were still floating in space, only held back by their guardian's firm grip.

"Gravitize!" Jazz said hurriedly, reaching up and pull down his charge's other arm.

"We don't know how,"

"Think gravitize!" Cliffjumper was jumping up and down in his processor. The girls closed their eyes and thought deeply before they too were standing on the Spaecbridge. They glanced over at Bulkhead who was looking around nervously.  
"Don't look down," Foliage warned.  
"Or up,"  
"Or left," the girls snickered at Bulkhead's bewildered expression.  
"So Megatron's packing enough Dark Energon to raise Cybertron's dead?" Sideswipe asked.

"And since we don't possess ready means of disabling the Space Bridge, nothing gets in or out!" Sideswipe yelled. Bulkhead aimed and shot at the Decepticon ship, causing yellow red explosions in space.

/It appears the Decepticons have sustained serious damage to their interstellar navigation system,/ Ratchet said over comm.  
"Uh, that's my handiwork," Bulkhead said proudly.  
"Nice Bulky," Maple complimented him.  
/Without the dish, Megatron would be unable to aim the Space Bridge at Cybertron./ Ratchet informed them.  
/Don't the Decepticons know where their own planet is?/ Miko's voice was heard from the comm.

Duh!" Foliage answered. She rolled her eyes and grumbled something about common sense.  
/But Cybertron is many light years away./ Ratchet answered with an annoyed tone in his voice, /To reach their target, their aim must be astronomically precise./  
"Megabitch probably got another way," Maple said. The Twins snorted at Megatron's nickname.

/From what I know of Earth's technology/ Ratchet grumbled, making the girls giggle, /I doubt there exists a single radio-telescope dish on this planet powerful enough to pinpoint Cybertron./  
/What about a whole bunch of linked radio-telescope dishes?/ Raf's quiet voice came through the comm, /Like the giant sized array in Texas?/

/Shh! This is not child's play,/ Ratchet said, annoyed.  
"Good thinking, Raf," Optimus said, "Ratchet, have agent Fowler alert the array staff to the security hazard,"

 _Back At Base…._  
"You, soldier! You on the uniform! Put on some pants!" Agent Fowler popped up straight in bed and lied flat down again.

"That may be a challenge," Ratchet said. Raf was furiously typing on his computer.  
"I can't get past the array's firewalls," he said, "They're too thick,"  
"You actually think you could keep the Decepticons out?" Ratchet asked incredulously.

"Maybe, if I could get in,"  
:W-wait, Raf, what if we could get you all the way in? Like 'inside-the-building' in?" Jack suggested.

"I could log into their intern network on the other side of the firewall!" Raf said excitedly.  
"The risk is too great, the Decepticons would be there!" Jack said, popping the hope balloon, "Perhaps even on sight!"  
"Optimus, with all due respect you said it yourself, this is bigger than the safety of three humans," Ratchet said through comm link.  
"Yeah, if we let the 'Cons win, we are fried, along with everyone else on our planet!" Miko shouted.

"Like your style girl!" the girl's voice was heard from comm link.  
"Raf?" Jack asked him quietly, all eyes were on him. Even the bots in space seemed to look through the comm link and straight at him.

"I wanna give it a shot," Raf said confidently.

 _Back in Space…._

"Here comes the welcoming committee," Bulkhead said, pointing to the flying vehicons.  
/Optimus, I'm registering a rapidly expanding mass in their Space Bridge vortex./ Ratchet's gruff voice rang through the comm link, /One with a peculiar energy signature./  
"Dark Energon," Optimus, Foliage, and Maple said at the same time. They all looked at each other.

"Jinx!" The two girls giggled and laughed. Everybot shook their head inwardly.  
"Ratchet, we must destroy the Space Bridge," Optimus continued, unfazed by what happened earlier.  
"There's enough energon in this shit to blow it up." Foliage informed them.

"But we don't fucking know how," Maple cut her sister and got a smack on the back of the head. She looked at Foliage with a frown on her face while rubbing the back of her neck.  
/If I knew how the Space Bridge was engineered, I might find a tactical way of accomplishing that feat,/ Ratchet said, musing over the possibilities.  
/Hm would schematics help?/ Raf's hopeful voice rang out but was ignored.

/Optimus, I must say the Space Bridge is our sole hope of ever returning to Cybertron./ Ratchet's sorrowful voice rang out, /Are you certain it's destruction is the only option?/

"I am afraid so," Optimus said, his voice slightly laced with sorrow.  
/Then by all means let us light our darkest hour!/ Ratchet said confidently. The girls whooped.  
"Autobots, take your positions, and follow Ratchet's lead," Optimus commanded. The girls ignored his order and ran off.

"SUGAR CRUSH!" Cliffjumper and Jazz looked at Optimus before running after their charges.  
"While I make my stand," Optimus said before everybto ran off.  
"Your fellow Autobots are wise, Optimus," Megatron taunted, "They know when to retreat,"  
"I hold no illusions about engaging your army, Megatron," Optimus replied, dodging a bow before delivering one of his own, "But I might derail its objective by removing its head,"  
"Highly unlikely, Optimus, as I am infused of the very might!" Megatron proclaimed.

"One shall stand, one shall fall," Optimus merely replied.  
"Ratchet, we're in position," Arcee said from under the Space Bridge.  
/Arcee, pay close attention./ Ratchet instructed.

Megatron listened to an inaudible voice before smirking a looked back at Optimus.  
"Ah, misdirection, Optimus? You would had made a fine Decepticon," Megatron said mockingly.  
"I chose my side"

/Now follow the line from the flow regulator to the energon pump,/ Ratchet instructed, /There should be a valve,/  
"I see it!/"Bulkhead exclaimed.  
/Good./ Ratchet said nonchalantly, /To turn all that power against itself, all you need to do is reverse the current./ Arcee and Bulkhead pushed with all of their might but they just couldn't budge the switch. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Foliage and Maple came running up behind them and helped them push the switch.  
"Current reversed."  
"Yes!" Bulkhead punched the air, "Right?"

/I'll ready the Ground Bridge./ Ratchet pressed a few buttons, /Optimus, the Ground Bridge is ready and waiting./ But before they could jump a shot rang out from their right and it was headin straight for Arcee. Cliffjumoer jumped in the way only to get blocked by Foliage. Maple tried to pull her back but it was too late. The shot already hit Foliage on her abdomen.  
"Autobots, jump!" Maple grabbed Foliage and pulled her through the groundbridge.

"Do you think they're?" Jack left the question unfinished.

"7 life signals," Ratchet said worriedly, "One very faint!" Maple carried Foliage through the groundbridge and set her on one of the metal berths.

"We almost one this week, by the Allspark, don't let it be two," Foliage groaned and tried to touch the energon leaking out of her wound only to get her hand slapped by Maple.

"No touching," Maple said sternly before examining the wound. Ratchet walked up to her and looked over her shoulder.

"I could fix her," Ratchet said firmly, "You get out of my medbay!" Maple stood right where she was. Foliage groaned again.

"Suck it up girl," she told Foliage encouragingly, "You've had worse injuries," Everyone looked at Maple and Foliage in surprise. Ratchet took out his medical tools and started to operate on her. Maple got beside him and practically pushed him aside.

"It hurts," Foliage groaned. Maple walked up to her.

"Name all of your injuries," Maple ordered her while she got out some numbing serum and injected it into her wound. She hissed.

"Legs got blown off," Foliage rasped, "At one point or another,"

"The reason for that were really stupid," Maple unhelpfully commented. Foliage snorted while Maple got out a welding torch and started to weld her metal together. Foliage let out a restrained scream.

"Numbing medicine went off?" Maple asked, finishing off the last part of Foliage's metal. Foliage hissed and gripped the side of the metal berth.

"You're finished," Maple told her before lifting her up, "No walking for 2 days,"

"What!"

"I mean it!" Maple said before lifting her up and carrying her bridal style. Everyone stared at the girls in shock.

"How did you learn how to repair someone like that?" Ratchet asked Maple, examining her work on Foliage.

"You'll learn eventually when you live with this girl," Maple said simply. Cliffjumper walked up to Foliage. Maple was struggling to carry her.

"Want me to carry her?" he asked. The girls looked at each other and shook their head.

"Um, thanks for blocking the shot," Cliffjumper asked, "Why did you do it anyways?" both girls kept silent.

"Because it was the right thing to do," Foliage said simply.

"Even if it's stupid as shit," Maple said, whacking her sister's head, "That's for whacking me on the head!"

"Bitch," Foliage muttered before Maple carried her to their bedroom and close the door. All bots were in awe and confused.

"Why did Maple not let Ratchet fix her friend?"


	10. Masters and Students

_**This is a Christmas Special! 3317 words! My highest record for this story! I hope you all enjoy this and have a Happy New Year!**_

"Whoo hoo!" the girls cheered, jumping up and down.

"Megabitch is gone!" they sang, waving their arms in the air. Foliage was supposed to be sitting down but snuck a little standing time when Maple was celebrating. Her wound was still visible and sometimes, energon still leaked from it. Maple stopped and glared at Foliage who dramatically stopped jumping up and down and looked at her.

"What?" Maple marched over, dragged Foliage to a crate, and pushed her shoulders down.

"I SAID NO STANDING FOR 3 DAYS!" Maple yelled at Foliage. Foliage winced and covered her ears, everyone else following her example.

"Jeez!", Foliage said, "It was only for 10 seconds!"

"Nope, I'm having none of that!"

"That sounds like Hatchet," Jazz whispered to Cliffjumper who snickered. A wrench whizzed through the air and struck both bots on the head.

"What did you say?" Ratchet asked sinisterly. Both bots paled, if robots could paled, and shook their heads furiously.

"N-nothing?" they said at the same time. Ratchet grunted, glaring at them before turning around and continuing his work. Both bots let out their held breath and sighed. The girls snickered at their misfortune.

"Optimus, why so glum?" Maple asked, noticing that Prime was the only one not celebrating.

"This planet, all planets are finally free from Megatron's tyranny," Ratchet said, agreeing with Maple's observation.  
"I do not disagree, Ratchet," Optimus said sadly, "It's just A small part of me hoped to change Megatron's mind, not extinguish his spark,"  
"Optimus, his vileness was not slain by your hand but by his own twisted arrogance!" Ratchet said exasperatedly.

"Ratchet, give the guy a break!" Foliage said, defending Optimus , "This guy got a big heart of gold, don't crush it!"  
"Hmm," Optimus said thoughtfully.  
"I'm sorry," Ratchet said not too apologetically, " I know the two of you had quite a history,"  
"But the Megatron whom I once fought beside perished eons ago, the day he chose to become a Decepticon," Optimus said, trying to convince himself that Megatron's death is for the better good.

"Uh c'mon!" Maple groaned, "You ruined his heart of gold!"

"What is this 'heart of gold?" Optimus asked.

"It's a human expression referring to people who are very good people," Foliage explained. Both bots nodded. A loud boom was heard and smoke was in the air.

"Decepticons! We're under attack!" Ratchet shouted and ran pulling out his cannons. Optimus was right bhind him

"It's no attack, Ratchet," Raf said reassuringly, coughing and waving the air around him "It's my volcano. Or was," he coughed a bit more.  
"Hold still, Bulkhead!", Miko said, posing her paintbrush in the air, "Jupiter needs its red spot. Whoopsie!" Miko said after she missing, dripping red paint on the floor.

What in the allspark is going on in here?!"

"Our projects are due tomorrow," Raf explained.  
"Maybe it needs one of these doohickeys," Arcee said, holding up a metal part.  
"You're a motorcycle, Arcee," Jack said, "Shouldn't you know how to build a motorcycle engine?"

"You're a human, Jack," Arcee said sarcastically, "Can you build me a small intestine?"

"Well, you can't work on these projects in here!" Ratchet said, "You're making a mess!"

"This," Maple said pointing at their projects, "Is not a mess,"

"You should see our base," Foliage said before her eyes saddened.

"Or what's left of it," Both girls sighed. Everyone looked at the girls with sympathy.  
"But the science fair's a big part of our grade," Raf protested.  
"Yeah, if Bulkhead doesn't help me finish this model of our solar system," Miko started to say.

"And what does bulkhead know of your solar system, or Bumblebee of your volcanos, or"

"Arcee of our motorcycles?" Jack said finishing for Ratchet.

"Exactly! We're not earthlings!" Ratchet said, "And they're not scientists!"  
"But the autobots are their guardians, Ratchet," Optimus said tactically, "Would it hurt to learn more of earth by helping our young friends with their schoolwork?"

"Well, maybe our young friends should try learning more of Cybertron," Ratchet snorted.

"Speaking of schoolwork," Cliffjumper said, looking over at the girls, "Don't you guys have schoolwork?" both girls cringed, holding themselves in an uncomfortable state.

"We don't go to school," Foliage said coldly.

"School are for sissies," Maple said, crossing her arms. All the smiles and laughter were wiped of their faces, only leaving behind a dark cold look that a sparkling should never have.

"Why?" Jazz asked after searching on Google. Education was an important part in a human's life! Foliage narrowed her eyes.

"We have better things to do," she said simply and turned her head away, thus ending the conversation. Cliffjumper and Jazz's optics bore into their back but they saved it for another time. The Twins just shrugged.

"Really, Bumblebee?" Raf asked in awe, "Then how do you make warrior class? But I've seen you in action.  
You're awesome!"

"I second your opinion, Raf," Optimus said, walking up behind him, But autobots life cycles are much longer than those of humans. And though it may be hard to believe, our young scout still has much to experience,"

 _BEEP BEEP BEEP_  
"Exposed Energon, and it's on the move," Ratchet reported, typing furiously on the keypad.  
"And since we ain't moving it, guess who must be," Sunstreaker said sarcastically.  
"Decepticons," Sideswipe said, his finger curling into a fist.  
"Without Megatron?" Miko asked, confused.

Unfortunately, Megatron's legacy will live on as others rise to take his place," Optimus said with a hint of sadness, "Autobots, you have projects to complete. Ratchet, I may require aid," Optimus said, looking at Ratchet.

"What!" The Twins exclaimed.

"I'm not gonna touch a squishy's stuff," Sunstreaker complained, "Or help them!"  
"Science fair is a big part of their grade," Ratchet said persuasively, "Perhaps I'm better suited to remain behind and advise,"  
"Very well," Optimus said, trusting his CMO's judgement completely, "Sunstreaker, Sideswipe. Let us see about this Energon in transit," Ratchet opened a ground bridge for them and they exited the base.  
"This doesn't look like an energon mine," Sideswipe commented as they observed Starscream and Soundwave from behind big sandstone boulders.

"No, Sideswipe, it does not," Optimus said, activating his battle mask, "Hold your position and await my command,"  
"Awaken, warrior," Starscream said, holding his hands up in the air majestically, "Rise and serve your new master!"

"Skyquake serves only one master," Skyquake said, observing his new surroundings.  
"Excellent," Starscream said with traces of glee, "Your loyalty and devotion will set a fine example for the troops," Starscream said, waiting. His face bore a confused expression but it immediately disappeared to be replace with a I'm-better-than-you look.  
"No need to be timid, Skyquake," Starscream said boldly, "You may bow,"  
"You fail to grasp my meaning," Skyquake said in annoyance, "I am here on a mission assigned to me by my one master: Megatron,"

"Yes. Him," Starscream said disappointedly, "Sadly, Megatron is no longer with us,"  
"Impossible," Skyquake said in awe and unacceptance.  
"Why is this so difficult for everyone to accept?" Starscream said exasperatedly, "Skyquake, I located you.  
I awakened you. Thus I, lord Starscream, am now your master!" Optimus and the Twins jumped out from behind the rocks which they have been hiding behind.

"It has been a while, Skyquake," Optimus regarded his opponent cooly.  
"Optimus Prime," Skyquake returned the cool regards, "I haven't seen you since the battle of ordered me to annihilate you," Skyquake's expression suddenly turned murderous.  
"That was a long time ago," Optimus said with caution.  
"That may be, Prime, but my orders still stand,"  
Is this ancient war still worth fighting when so many comrades have been lost and worlds destroyed?" Optimus said persuasively, "If you want to be a true leader, Starscream, then stray from Megatron's path and lead the Decepticons toward peace,"  
"I would be willing to consider a truce If you would be willing to bow before me, Optimus Prime," Starscream said maliciously.  
"Again?! Bow to this!" Skyquake tossed Starscream to one side, annoyed of this whole bow-to-me buisiness. Starscream groaned, sat up, and took off, like a true coward.

Skyquake, this is a new era, on another world," Optimus furthered his persuading campaign, "Side with the Autobots, and help me end this conflict forever!"  
"I will never side with a Prime!" Skyquake roared and charged at Optimus, throwing him into a rock wall. He charged again and flung Optimus into another wall, sending a cloud of dust into the air.

"What need have I for peace when I have Skyquake?" Starscream said to Soundwave, not expecting an answer, "With some discipline, he will learn to respect his new master. And once it becomes known that Skyquake destroyed Optimus Prime under my command! All Decepticons will gratefully bow to me,"

Optimus shot at Skyquake but the energon bullet ricochet of his chest. He shot again but missed. Skyquake pulled out his cannon and shot repeatedly at Optimus, pushing him back. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe saw this and they charged out, shooting at Skyquake from behind.  
"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe. No!" Optimus called out. Skyquake shot repeatedly with his cannon at the twins as the jumped from one side of the rock wall to the other, dodging the bullet effectively until Sideswipe was hit and slammed into the wall.

"Sideswipe!" Sunstreaker yelled. Skyquake was about to shoot at Sideswipe again as he was against the wall but his repeated shots were misguided and Optimus jumped up and directed Skyquake's cannon upwards. Sideswipe ran out and Sunstreaker charged towards Skyquake only to be lifted up in the air and thrown to the ground.

"No!" Sunstreaker groaned, "Not the paint!"

"Do not miss a single moment, Soundwave!" Starscream commanded, watching the ordeal with glee, "We shall need visual documentation of Optimus Prime's demise. For the historical record!" Optimus flung himself and Skyquake only to tossed over the shoulder towards where the Twins stood.  
"Skyquake has not yet acquired a vehicle mode," Optimus whispered. Skyquake let out a battle cry and charged towards them, "Fall back!" They changed into their alt modes, reversing and turning a full 360 degrees before speeding off.

"So, time has made you a coward, Prime?!" Skyquake taunted and fired at them through the haze with his bullets.

 _Back at Baser_

"Let's see. Where is it?" Ratchet mumbled.

"Um," Raf queried, "What is it?"

"You'll find out," Ratchet said absentmindedly, continuing to fire blaze some things, sending off blue sparks in the air.  
"But, Ratchet, shouldn't I be doing the work?" Raf asked, walking forward and touch "his science project".

"Eh, yeah, yeah, yeah!" Ratchet tutted, "Don't touch! Just watch and learn," he said before continuing his work.

All of the bots just stood there and watched him. Jack and Miko were standing on the steps, looking down at him. Foliage and Maple sighed before giving each other the look. They snuck off.  
"So, we're just gonna go help Jack and Miko finish their" Bulkhead started to say.

"Without my supervision?!" Ratchet exclaimed, "You want them to be right, don't you?" he asked rhetorically. Arcee and Bulkhead looked at each other and looked back at him. Bumblebee buzzed and whirred, shaking his head.

"Then watch a master at work!" he said with a crazed look on his face.

"Control freak," Miko whispered to Jack. Cliffjumper and Jazz sighed.

"C'mon little ladies," Jazz said looking around, "Let's go have do something productive. Cliffjumper looked around again.

"Foliage?"

"Maple?"

 _Back at the Battlefield_  
Soundwave scanned the surroundings.

"We've lost sight of them!" Starscream complained, "Soundwave, why aren't you tracking them?" A ping popped up on Soundwave's visor.

"What? What is it?" Starscream asked rhetorically, "A second Decepticon life signal? But Skyquake is the only sleeper buried in this area!" Starscream exclaimed before looking again.  
"The site of our destroyed space bridge," Starscream said thoughtfully, "You're not telling me that life signal belongs to Megatron? B-b-but he was microns from the detonation point! Nothing could have survived that blast! Your sensors must be faulty! Ignore the contact! Delete the coordinates!" Starscream ranted. Soundwave just stood there and made whirring noises, still holding on to the coordinates.

"Oh, what am I saying? O-of course! This must be investigated," Starscream said tactfully, "If lord Megatron is up there, I shall bring him home! Remain here and monitor the outcome! When Skyquake snuffs Prime's spark, I must bear witness!"Starscream transformed and dived down before taking off into the skies.

"Must bear witness," came Starscream's voice from Soundwave. Laserbeak dispatched from Soundwave's chest and took off, following Starscream.

Sunstreaker sped off, with Skyquake tumbling behind him. He sped into a dead end and transformed into his bipedal mode, running towards the wall and looked back.

"It will be a shame to crush you, bug, but it is my duty," Skyquake rumbled before turning around to a beep of another lamborghini, this time, red. Skyquake shot at him with his cannon, the lamborghini dodged all of the bullets and transformed into Sideswipe. He ran up to Skyquake and punched him into the wall.  
"Nice one Sides," Sunstreaker commented before looking down at his paint in horror. There were scratched everywhere and he was covered in soot. Optimus drove up behind them and transformed.

"Excellent strategy," Optimus complemented, unaware that he was being watched. Skyquake groaned and fell down, face flat on the ground before popping his blood red optics open and punched Optimus on the back.  
"Skyquake, stay down," Optimus said sternly before giving Skyquake a much deserved punch in the face. He fell flat on his back.

"Nice paint, Sunny," Sideswipe teased. Sunstreaker

grumbled.

"Don't call me that!"An air jet flew across the sky.  
"Fowler?" Optimus said in awe. Skyquake smirked and scanned the skies.

"Agent Fowler, fall back!" Optimus said through comm link but it was too late. Skyquake scanned the air jet and took off to the skies. He flew up next to Fowler.

"Well, I'll be a bald eagle," Agent Fowler exclaimed. Skyquake dived back down to the ground.  
"Air superiority achieved," his rumbling voice rang out and started shooting at Optimus and the Twins. They started to run, the bullets close behind them. Then, they came to their senses and transformed into their alt modes, speeding off. Skyquake continued to shoot at them as they swerved from side to side, dodging the bullets.

Skyquake was about to drop 2 bombs down at them but was shot from behind by an identical air jet.  
"Stealing plans for a classified military aircraft will not be tolerated on my watch!" Fowler said sternly to himself. Skyquake dropped back and now, the hunter was being to hunted. He dispatched multiple missiles at Agent Fowler.

"Heat seekers!" Agent Fowler exclaimed and dived down into the canyons, trying to dodge the missiles pursuing him. He flew straight into a canyon wall before flying straight up into the sky. All of the missiles hit the canyon wall instead of him.

"I still got it!" Skyquake continued to shoot at the Autobots, hitting Optimus and he was forced to transform and duck and Skyquake passed over head. The Twins also got struck and was lying on the ground. Energon was starting to pool around them.

Suddenly out of nowhere, two motorcycles came speeding after Skyquake. One was green and one was a rich cinnamon color. They sped until the edge of the canyon and jumped up into the air, over the crevasse and ran towards the edge. As they got towards the edge, they jumped over and landed on Skyquake. Foliage was on the right and Maple was on the left.

Skyquake flew towards the wall of the canyon and scrapped Foliage's back against it but Maple on the other side tipped him downwards, flipping Foliage into the air on she landed, buttfirst on his back.

"Agent Fowler," Optimus said when he saw the girls on Skyquake, "We require immediate assistance!" Skyquake tipped from one side to the other, trying to dislodge the girls but the held on fast. Maple slipped and was holding on for dear life with one hand.

"Grab on!" Foliage yelled, one hand was outstretch and the other was gripping tightly onto Skyquake. Maple swung herself up, grabbed Foliage's hand and Foliage flung her up into the air, landing behind Foliage on Skyquake back.

Both girls crouched down and behind to pull wire and metal out of Skyquake. Smoke was in the air as Skyquake started to dive stright towards the ground. Agent Fowler was right behind them.

"We're gonna jump!" Maple yelled over at Agent Fowler.  
"Any time, girls," Agent Fowler said, "Wait a sec- oh nevermind! Ground floor's coming fast!" As Skyquake started to accelerate in speed, Foliage and Maple held hands and Foliage pushed off, flung Maple over her shoulders and Maple landed on Agent Fowler's air jet and pulled in Foliage. Skyquake crashed into the ground, skidding and leaving trails of smoke and fire after him.  
"Happy landings, 'con," Sunstreaker said weakly as he tried to push himself up. Agent Fowler flew close to the ground, allowing the girls to jump off, landing at the top of the canyon before speeding off. Maple and Foliage climbed down and jumped beside Optimus.  
"Had Skyquake chosen to stray from his master's path, we might not be burying him today," Optimus said with a hint of remorse. Maple and Foliage had their arms crossed against their chest as they look at the fallen warrior. Both looked at each other and shrugged, and they started to walk towards the Twins. Both girls tried to lift both frontliners but with no avail.

"Hey," Foliage said, look at Optimus, "You can carry Sides by yourself,"

"And we will carry Sunny," Maple said, finishing off.

"Don't call me that!" Optimus nodded and lifted Sideswipe up, carrying him bridal style. Foliage got to Sunstreaker's head and Maple at Sunstreakers feet.

"You gotta put his legs on your shoulders!" Foliage yelled, putting Sunstreaker's arms on her shoulder. Maple lifted Sunstreaker's legs up and place it on her shoulders and she led the way into the ground bridge.

 _Back at Base_  
"Girls, putting yourself at risk was perhaps not the wisest of strategies, but you performed admirably," Optimus complemented the awestruck girls. They were prepared to get a scolding of their life.

"There you are!" Cliffjumper yelled running towards the girls.

"Don't you dare run off again!" Jazz exclaimed, examining the girls for any damage.

"Shut up," Foliage said, "We're not children,"

"Yes you are," Ratchet retorted, never looking up from his computer. Both girls stuck their tongue out at him. They looked at each other and smiled.

"YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!" they yelled, "WE KILLED A CON! WE KILLED A CON!" they said imitating their own moves.

"That was so awesome!"

"Girls,"Optimus said sternly, "You are both confined to base for a week,"

"You can't tell us what to do!" Maple said defiantly, "You're not my mother!"

"Or my father!"

"And we're not Autobots," Maple said, growling.

"You can boss your guys around but you can't boss us around!"

"But we gave you a place to stay!"

"You gave us," Maple said, narrowing her eyes, "Not: we begged,"

"Anyways," Foliage said, "We already repaid you, have we not?"  
"Aha-ha-ha! There you are," Ratchet said happily, "Well? How were my - Uh, our projects received?"

"Well" Miko said, scratching the back of her head. The humans told their story, one by one.

"Well, on our planet, you would have been awarded the highest honors!" Ratchet grumbled, "Absolutely no gratitude,"

"Yeah, on your planet!" Foliage saide, defending the humans, "But this is not your planet!"

"This is Earth!" Ratchet grumbled and started to repair the Twins. Bumblebee whirred and chirped.

"Indeed, Bumblebee," Optimus agreed, "Our human friends would have been wise to stray from Ratchet's path," the girls snorted and laugh.

"Good thing we don't go to school," Maple remarked, "Right Sunny?"

"Don't call me that!"


	11. What is Going On?

The base was quiet, for now as the guardians are out to pick up their charges. The girls were hanging out on the couch in their human forms, battling each other in a videogames war. They were leaning from side to side, punching the buttons furiously.

"I'm going to win this!" Maple yelled, pushing against her sister's elbow.

"Never!" Foliage yelled pushing back. The virtual and physical went on for quite a long time, empty threats were also thrown into the air.

"Boom!" Foliage yelled, jumping up and she threw the controller onto the couch, "You just got WRECKED!" Maple threw her controller onto the couch and pouted.

"No fair!" she complained, "You got the Fairy A-sized gun!" Foliage stuck her tongue out at her. Maple got up and tackled her to the ground. They wrestled on the ground, rolling about until they leaned against empty space and rolled down the stairs. They laid flat against the ground, staring at the ceiling.

"What was all of that commotion!?" Ratchet appeared from the medbay.

"She started it!" they said at the same time, pointing at each other. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe smirked. Jazz smiled and shook his head. Cliffjumper leaned against the wall and folded his arms across his chassis.

"Hmmm," Ratchet grumbled and walked back to the medbay. The girls stifled a giggle. Once they thought he was out of earshot, they laughed.

"You should have seen the look on his face!" Maple exclaimed, doubling over in laughter. Foliage laughed along with her, her elbow resting on Maple's back.

"I even took a picture!"

"Show me!" Foliage got out her phone and opened up the picture. Roars of laughter follows after they looked at the picture. Three vehicles pulled into the base. Miko opened Bulkhead's door and ran over to the girls.

"Whatcha laughing at?" Miko asked before looking at the picture herself. She laughed, make them laugh along with her.

"Oh god," Miko said, gasping for air, "That was hilarious!" Ratchet appeared from his medbay, joined with Optimus.

"What is so funny?" Ratchet asked suspiciously. Jack and Eaf walked over to join them.

"Yeah, what's so…" Jack started to ask but he looked at the picture. Raf leaned in to look at the picture, too. They both smiled, widely. Ratchet huffed, leaned down and stared at them in the eyes.

"Show me," he said in a dangerous voice. The girls looked at the boys and they shrugged, backing away. Miko stared at them.

"Cowards," she looked at the girls encouragingly. They smiled and turned the phone screen around. Ratchet offlined his optics, the cybertronians way of closing his eyes and popped them back online. He vented, quite loudly and stood back up. He vented again, this time louder than the one before. Optimus put a hand on his shoulder.

"This fight isn't worth it," Optimus told him. Ratchet vented one more time and walked into his medbay wordlessly. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe smirked widely. Once he left, they doubled over in laughing.

"Show me the picture!" Sideswipe demanded, leaning down.

"Better yet," Foliage said, "I'll send it to you!" Sideswipe stood back up and leaned against the wall. Sideswipe optics dimmed as he received and sent the package to his brother. Both of them laugh even more when they saw the picture. Jazz cleared his throat.

"As third in command," he said seriously, "I have the right to know any files that goes around between the soldiers, send it to me!" Sunstreaker snorted but his optics dimmed anyways.

"Sent it to me, too!" Cliffjumper yelled. Soon, his optics also dimmed. The girls smirked widely. Suddenly, a phone ring was heard in the base. Maple stuck her hands in her pocket and fished out her phone.

"Alo?", she said into the phone, "Hi Trickie! Uh hu. Uh hu. We'll be there! What time? Ok," she ended the call and looked at Foliage making facial expressions. Miko has this very confused look on her face.

"What are they doing?"

"They're talking through their bond," Bulkhead explained, "A bond is a telepathic bond that cybertronians share with special people like family or siblings," Miko nodded. The girls looked up at Optimus.

"Can we use your ground bridge?"

"Why?"

"We have private business,"

"What private business?" Jazz asked, arching his eyebrow, if he had any.

"It'd private," Foliage simply said.

"If you don't let us use the ground bridge," Maple said manipulatively, "We could just ride there," Cliffjumper narrowed his optics.

"Where is there?"

"Jeez guys!" Foliage said exasperatedly, "Don't you know the meaning of a fucking private business?"

"You know what, let's go," Maple said, pulling Foliage with her, "We're wasting our time!" She pulled out her phone and looked at them time, "Shit! We're gonna be fucking late!" Foliage human form dissipated into her Foliage Green color, her skin turning into metal and metal into a motorcycle. The engine of the motorcycle reeved and a holoform of a girl with long shiny foliage green hair sticking out of her black helmet. She was wearing a black leather biker outfit, finished off with black fingerless leather gloves and black high heels.

"Aw come on!" she grumbled, turning around, "Now I have to go and change,"

"Better do it quick!" Foliage revved her engine. Maple quicken her pace and started to run. She opened a human door inside the big cybertronian door and closed it.

"Where are you going?" Cliffjumper asked suspiciously.

"A party," Foliage said. She stared at him, challenging him to ask her any more questions. Maple appeared wearing the same outfit, the only difference being is her hair color, which was a maple syrup color. It was also shiny and long.

"You may go," Optimus said suddenly. He has been keeping quiet for a long time. The girls stared at him. They blinked several times.

"Really?"

"Yes," Optimus said, "Ratchet, fire up the ground bridge," Ratchet grumbled but followed his leader's order nonetheless. The girl smiled and zoomed through the ground bridge. Once they were gone, Optimus turned and looked at the 2 guardians.

"I want you to follow them," Optimus said, "Find out what they are doing,"

"Whoah whoah," Miko said, jumping in front of the ground bridge and waving her hands, "Isn't that kinda like deception?"

"Deception can be used for good and bad," Optimus explained, not to happy about it himself, "And I have a suspicion of what they are doing,"

 _At the Remote Highway_

"Racers, on the line!" a MC said on a microphone," Ladies and Gentlemen, today, we have the Annual Fall Biker Race!" Loud cheering and whooping were heard in the audience. They were all standing in the sidelines, with no barriers whatsoever. They all dressed like people from a bad neighborhood, only worse. They all had unusual hair styles, hair dyes, spikes on their clothing, they all wore black or some sort of dark color.

Some of them had heavy goth makeup on or just went for the natural mean look. All of them had this guarded look on their face, you don't have to see it, you just know it. Although they may seem to act nicely around each other and do some small talk. Their eyes are very calculating, picking out any weaknesses from the other person and storing it in their brain.

"Here we have Venom!" the MC yelled. Boos, hisses, cheers, and whooping could be heard from there to the finish line. Venom was a burly man with a disheveled beard. He has scars running down his cheeks. He held his helmet with his left hand and punch the sky with the other, roaring. The crowd went crazy and roared with him. The MC ushered everyone to quiet down.

"The one and only Scorpion!" the crowd went nuts, there were cheering and an awful lot of boos and hisses. Scorpion was a rather short man. Tattoos ran down both of his arms. His eyes glinted and seemed to sparkle in the dark. His black helmet was on his head as he punched the air and yelled. The crowd yelled with him.

"The amazing and sly Foxman!" the crowd went crazy as a tall man got off his blood red motorcycle and took of his black helmet. His red hair came into view and the crowd cheered louder. There was an occasional hiss here and there. He had emerald green eyes with specks of blue in them. A scar ran from the outer point of his right eyes to his right nose.

"Snake!" there were no cheers, the crowd went quiet but erupted into boos and hisses. Snake was an average sized man with tattoos everywhere. On his face, his arms, his legs, everywhere. A nasty frown appeared on his face.

"Well everyone!" the MC said nervously, "I'm pretty sure we all like Snake, eh?" the crowd hissed louder, "Maybe?" the MC took out a hankie and wiped his forehead.

"That's all-" a powerful sound of an engine was approaching, all the contestants turned around and shielded their eyes and they tried to make out who it was through the bright light. Foxman and Scorpion, being the one in the middle, pushed their motorcycle out of the way.

The motorcycle pulled up and the crowd who were nearer to the starting line, the MC, and the contestants saw the flying green and maple brown hair. Snake has a snarl on his face. Foxman smiled but it never quite reached his eyes. Scorpion and Venom glared at the 2 black helmets. Hands lifted of the helmets and two familiar faces appeared.

The person in front had a forest green hair with electrifying blue eyes. The person sitting behind had a cinnamon brown hair with 2 different shades of brown for each eyes. The right eye was a natural rich brown eye while the other was a paler shade, a rich maple syrup brown. The crowd cheered wildly, and there were also boos and hisses.

"Change of plan folks!" the MC said in a fake cheery voice, "Tonight, we will have the Duo: Two Eyes and Sparks joining us!" the crowd cheered again, including the boos and hisses. Two Eyes and Sparks turned to their right and left, smirking. Sparks put her hand on the handle and revved her engine. The other contestants did the same.

"On your marks, get set, GO!" the MC fired a bullet into the sky. The bang wan accompanied by the powerful roars of the engine pushing off.

Foxman leaned to the right, before trying to slam into the Dup. But he couldn't, as they already pulled behind to the left of him and pushed on. Foxman staggered into Venom. Venom spun around in a full circle before spinning of course.

"Venom has been disqualified!" the MC's voice rang out from the many speakers along the track. Cheers, boos, and hisses naturally responded. Venom got up, a dark and murderous look was on his face. The contestants were ¼ into the tracks. Snake revved his engine and pushed up before pressing a button with his thumb, releasing oil onto the tracks. The crowd booed and hissed. Some cheered and yelled out encouragement.

The Duo stopped their engine and spun multiple circle, still in control of their motorcycle. They even performed some tricks. Two Eyes used her legs to lift the back of the motorcycle and Sparks lifted the front of the motorcycle and they did a 360 spin in the air. Oil drops spattered in the air.

Foxman leaned his motorcycle to the left and did a 360 in the oil spill, making waves of oil that spread. The Duo was out of the oil first and speed on. Foxman followed, staggering to one side but her regained balance by pushing the ground with his foot.

Scorpion didn't do good though, he leaned to one side to the other, not stable or in control of his motorcycle. Just before he got to the end of the oil spill, he spun out of control, throwing him to the ground and his motorcycle skidded 2 feet in front.

"Scorpion has been disqualified!" the crowd roared, cheered, booed, and hissed. Lots of those going on tonight. Venom looked back at the remaining contestants and snarled. He was going to have to do a lot better than that to throw them off.

"Got any more dirty tricks!" Two Eyes yelled out. He growled pressed another button with his thumb. Nails came tumbling out on the tracks. The crowd hissed and booed. No cheers or wild yelling. There were lots of angry shouts, though. The Duo started to jump through the nails rapidly on the back wheel. Two Eyes used her feets to push the nails away from the wheel. Sparks was frowning in concentration as she seemingly used the handles to propel the motorcycle forward.

Foxman skidded to a stop, just 1 inch away from getting his front tire puncture by a nail. He stood up his motorcycle and scowled at the two remaining contestants.

"Foxman has been eliminated!" the MC said with a sweaty face. Snake heard that and turned his head around to see the smirking faces of Two Eyes and Sparks. He didn't notice the ditch in the road in front of him and his bike stopped in the ditch. The back wheels were still rolling as his engine revved. He was hurled 2 feet in front of his bike. The Duo sped by, slowing long enough to say:

"So long sucker!" they laughed with glee as they sped to the finish line. A crowd of people were waiting at the finish line, yelling and cheering.

"GO TWO EYES! GO SPARKS!" they said. The Duo smiled as the did a 360 to the finish line.

"Two Eyes and Sparks win the Annual Fall Bike Race!" the MC shouted nervously, looking at Snake. Snake was growling and he glared at the MC. The MC gulped and get lost quickly. He turned his glance to the Duo was. They were accepting a burlap sack of money from the crowd since the MC was nowhere to be found. He held his hand up in the air and did a wave. His men gathered around him and advanced forward. There were about 3 muscular men wearing black clothing. The Duo saw this and whistled. Instantly, 4 people appeared around them. Two of them were girls while the other 2 were boys.

"Back off Snake," Sparks said dangerously.

"You're outnumbered," Two Eyes growled. Snake growled back and he and his gang whipped out their guns. The Duo and their gang also got out their guns and poised them in position to shoot. The crowd were all siding with the Dup. Snake growled when he saw that.

"This will not be the last time," he growled and left with his gang. The jumped on their motorcycles and sped off. The crowd and the Duo's gang relaxed their stand.

The crowd started to disperse and each of them left. Some went on motorcycles, some went on cars. Some were cheap and some were expensive. At last, the only one's left are the Duo and their gang.

"That was close!" the blonde haired girl said. She had her long hair in a ponytail.

"Hit right on the nail Trickie," a dark haired boy said. He looked at the sack of money.

"Right guys," Two Eyes said, "There are 8,000 dollars in this bag," everyone's eyes opened wide.

"And everyone get's 1,000," Sparks said and she started to divide the money out.

"One for you, Shadow," Two Eyes said, handing the money to the dark haired boy.

"One for you Tiger," a red headed girl came up to claim her money.

"One for Queenie," a blonde haired came up with a stoically face.

"It's Queen Bee," Two Eyes smirked.

"Whatever," they finished give the last portion of the money to Vito. Vito was a boy who looked tall enough to be an adult. But if you study his face carefully, you'll see that he is still young, probably in his late teens. He has a bronze burgundy color hair with rich chocolate brown eyes.

All of the gang members left on their motorcycles. Two Eyes and Sparks sighed contently with their amount of money and turned around, jumping back. Right behind them was two mad looking men.

One of them had red hair and a oval face. His eyes were bright blue, sparking with electricity. He was wearing a white shirt with a red leather jacket over it. Long black pants completed his look. Overall, he was quite handsome.

The other had black hair with red, blue, and white streaks running horizontally on his head. He had square face and was wearing silver glasses. He also had a white underneath but we was wearing a black hoodie, unzipped. Blue denim jeans completed his look.

The girls looked confused for a moment but when they looked behind the two men, there was red Cadillac with horns on the hood and red, blue, and white Porsche 935.

"Damn," Foliage commented, "We're in deep shit,"

"How right you are," Cliffjumper said before he walked up to her and grabbed her arm. Foliage jerked her arm back and glared at him.

"I can walk myself, thank you very much!" she said, rubbing her arm tentatively. Jazz sighed and pretended to wash his face.

"Come on, we have to go back and report this to Optimus," Jazz said, pressed two finger on the side of his head habitually.

/Ratchet?/

/What?/

/We require a groundbridge/

/Go about 1.5 miles from here! I'll send you the coordinates!/

/Clear,/ Foliage rolled her eyes and she dismissed her holoform, reverting back to her human mode. Cliffjumper and Jazz's holoform sparked and fizzle into non existence, they popped open their front doors. The girls groaned and trudged their way into the car and plop themselves on the seat. The doors closed. They drove in silence.

 _Foliage's POV_

Foliage sat facing the window, refusing to look at Cliffjumper and he fizzed his holoform back online. They drove in silence.

"Why?"

"Why what?" Foliage snapped, still refusing to look at him. She faced the window and crossed her arms over her chest sighed and closed his eyes.

"That was dangerous Foli!" Foliage tilted her head just enough so he could see the edge of her eyes.

"Don't call me that," Cliffjumper sighed and looked down and sighed.

"But that was dangerous Foliage!" he said softly, reaching out to touch her arm. She jerked her arm away and cradled it in her lap. Her back was completely facing him.

"But I like it,"

"Like what?"

"The danger," she said, "The thrill, the suspense!"

"I'm your guardian," Cliffjumper explained, "I'm suppose to protect you!" Foliage frowned.

"I don't need protection," she growled. Her growl rumbled from her throat, almost like an animal. Cliffjumper frowned in frustration, he'd never heard a human growl like that before.

"Is something wrong with your throat?" Foliage remained silent. Thought ran through her head, some good, some bad.

No one must know! Her secrets belongs to her sister, Maple! Even if she told them, they will abandon her and her sister. They'll think she's a mutt, a worthless nobody. She smiled ruefully. That's what they all say anyways.

Dark memories ran through her head. She tried her best to bring up the barriers, banish those memories from her mind. This time, it wasn't enough. Those memories flowed in freely, like a flash flood, destroying everything in it's way. All the mental barriers that she put up to separate her mind, never letting anyone know was breaking. Tears started to form at the edge of her eyes.

Cliffjumper say her broken expression from his rear side window. His holoform reached out and started to rub her back but she shielded away from his touch.

"You can tell me,"

"You won't understand," she said softly, slightly hiccuping.

"I will, I promise," she took a deep breath and sighed, rubbing her eyes.

"No one will,"

 _Maple's POV_

They drove in silence, Mapel had took off her shoes and with her back to Jazz, hugged her legs to her chest and looked out the window. From his rear side window, Jazz could see her faraway glance, staring out at nothing.

"Maple?"

"What?" she snapped. Jazz sighed and looked back at the road again, "Promise me you'll never do that again?"

"They day I promise you is the day I die," Maple hissed. Jazz blinked his holoform's eyes several times. Sometimes, he forgot that his charge has a sharp tongue.

"Could you maybe tell me why you did that?"

"Did what!?"

"Lie to us, go racing?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Maple growled. This was getting too much, she needed _**him**_ but he wasn't here. He couldn't be here. For all she knows, he could be dead. Tears sprang in the corners of her eyes, threatening to fall.

Jazz adjusted his rear side window again and saw her sparkling eyes. He mentally cursed, and just wanted to facepalm, as the humans say it, a hundred times. He totally failed at being a guardian, he couldn't watch over her, and now he made her cry! A femmling!

Maple put her head between her head and the tears rolled of her cheeks and landed with a soft pit pat on Jazz's seat. Jazz mentally cursed himself again when he felt the pit pat.

"Hang on girl," he reached out to stroke her back but she flinched away from his touch. Her legs were covering her eyes and her long hair hid her face. The ground bridge appeared in front of them.

 _Back to Normal_

The two Autobots drove into the base. Cliffjumper opened his door and his charged glared at the dashboard before getting out. She glared at everybody. Jazz opened his door but Maple refused to get out. It was as if she was in her own little world with her legs sandwiching her head and her hair hanging over like a curtain.

"Uh, Foliage?"

"What!" Foliage snapped, glaring at Jazz. Jazz cringed, "Your sister ain't getting out, she's just sitting here…" Foliage's expression immediately changed and she rushed over to Maple.

"Maple! Listen to me! Maple!" Foliage said worriedly. Maple whimpered and shrunk back into the seat. Foliage sighed, glared at Jazz's dashboard before getting in and she part the hair around Maple's face.

"Girl," she said before give Maple a firm hug, "You're ok, you're ok. No one is going to hurt you," Maple whimpered and leaned in to Foliage's embrace. Foliage looked out of the car and glared at everyone looking at her and Maple. Foliage sighed, rocking Maple back and forth. A sad, soft music filled the base.

[Verse 1]

Now I've heard there was a secret chord

That David played, and it pleased the Lord

But you don't really care for music, do you?

It goes like this

The fourth, the fifth

The minor fall, the major lift

The baffled king composing "Hallelujah"

Maple sniffled and buried her head into Foliage's chest. Foliage held Maple closed to her, stroking her back. Jazz felt Maple's legs trembling in tune with her sobs.

[Chorus]

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 2]

Baby I have been here before

I know this room, I've walked this floor

I used to live alone before I knew you

I've seen your flag on the marble arch

Love is not a victory march

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Miko swayed to the singing and closed her eyes. Absentmindedly, her fingers plucked the chords in thin air. Raf pushed his glassed up his nose and took a seat. Jack folded his arms across his chest and closed his eyes with a thoughtful face.

[Chorus]

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 3]

There was a time you let me know

What's really going on below

But now you never show it to me, do you?

And remember when I moved in you

The holy dove was moving too

And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

[Chorus]

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 4]

Maybe there's a God above

But all I've ever learned from love

Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew you

And it's not a cry that you hear at night

It's not somebody who's seen the light

It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

[Chorus]

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

[Verse 5]

I did my best, it wasn't much

I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch

I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you

And even though

It all went wrong

I'll stand before the Lord of Song

With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

[Chorus]

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah

Foliage ended the song rocking Maple back and forth. Her soft snores could be heard as she moved her head to the other side. On her face a peaceful smile. Foliage leaned back to look and Maple and she smiled softly. She hugged Maple close to her chest and she put her arms under Maple's knees, the other was supporting her upper back. She grunted as she lifted Maple up, steadying herself.

She glared daggers at everyone in the base before walking towards her berthroom. She walked wobbly, leaning side to side to balance out on her heels. She positioned herself so she could leaned down, yank her high heels boot of her leg placed them into Maple's lap. She repeated the same thing with the other side. She walked in and closed the door without a word.

"What were they doing?" Optimus queried. Jazz snapped out of his shocked state and transformed into his bipedal mode. Cliffjumper followed suit.

"They were racing,"

"Woah what!" Miko exclaimed curiously, "They were motorcycle racing?" Bulkhead gave Miko a pleading look.

"I have to video," Cliffjumper said, sharing the file with Ratchet so he could project it onto the wall. The whole base watched the entire racing event in silence, except for Miko who gasped and cheered now and then. The Twins watched, smirking as the girls outwitted the unruly competitors. Optimus watched thoughtfully, thinking deeply.

"Why was Maple crying?" Raf asked, his big brown eyes seemed to have become more rounded and bigger. Jazz sighed.

"I don't know,"


	12. Scrapheap

The base was buzzing with excitement as Bumblebee and Bulkhead returned from the Arctic with a frozen metal pod. Ratchet was fuzzing, yelling and making threats at the Wrecker and the Scout as they tried to make up excuses from getting a medical check-up. Optimus walked over to the overdramatic medic, though he dared not to say that out loud.

"Ratchet, have you learned anything more about our arctic find?"

"Not yet," Ratchet gruffed, still fuzzing, "The pod can't be opened while it's frozen solid," Foliage groaned and rolled her eyes. She was sitting on the couch with her sister. The Autobots haven't dared question about why did Maple breakdown or why did they go racing. They didn't want to provoke the girls more.

"Arcee and I will search for any clue which might explain the origin of our arctic find,"

"Can we go?" Maple asked, standing up and stretching.

"No," Optimus said sternly, giving them a look, "You two are grounded,"

"What! What did we do?"

"You gave us a spark attack when you went racing," Jazz said sternly. He gave Maple a don't-even-think about it look. Cliffjumper joined, looking at Foliage right in the eyes. Foliage stared back, lifting her chin up in a challenging way. Foliage crossed her arms over her chest and glared right back.

Both girls were wearing a hoodie, zipped with grey sweatpants. Their hoodie was down and their hair was tied up in a ponytail. If it weren't for their eye color and their hair color, those two would be indistinguishable.

"Miss us, doc bot?" Miko piped up as she got her guitar out from inside Bulkhead. Ratchet grumbled.

"Shouldn't they be in school?"

"On Saturday?" Foliage snorted. Ratchet shot her an evil glare.

"We have the whole weekend off to spend with you!" Ratchet grumbled some incoherent words and got back to his medic work.

"I wasn't expecting to carpool,"

"What gives, Arcee?"

"Tag team, Jack," Arcee said, "It's my turn for exploration duty,"

"Oh, too bad," Jack replied, "It's a beautiful day for a ride. Would hate for you to feel guilty for leaving me indoors,"

"Arctic exploration duty,"

"Indoors where it's warm," The girls snickered at their roundabout convo. Foliage whispered something to Maple and she widen her eyes. Foliage gave her the thumbs up.

"Why don't you two get a room!" Maple shouted. Jack stared at her with wide eyes while Arcee gave them the look. Miko covered her mouth with her hands and giggled. Bumblebee and Bulkhead looked confused. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker snorted and hooted. Jazz and Cliffjumper smiled. Widely. Optimus Prime showed no emotions. Ratchet rolled his optics.

"Really?"

"The arctic? I've always wanted to see snow!"

"I would invite you to join, Rafael," Optimus said kindly, "But the conditions are much too extreme, even for we Autobots,"

"I understand," Raf said sadly.

"But I will bring you back a snowball,"

"That would be awesome!" Optimus Prime looked at him with kind optics.

"Transport complete," Ratchet said before widening his optics, "By the allspark!"

"So, what do you guys think we should do today?" Foliage asked, standing up.

"Video game tournament!" Miko shouted excitingly, "Last one standing wins!"

"Sideswipe, Sunstreaker! Here!" Ratchet called the Terror Twins, "Now!"

"Prepare to be destroyed," Miko said to Jack.

"Yeah, not really my thing, Miko,"

"Oh?" Miko taunted, "Scared of losing? To a girl?"

"Bring it!"

"No mercy," Jack noticed how sad Raf looked, "Hey, Raf You want to take on Miko for me?"

"Nah," Raf replied sadly, "I have stuff to do,"

"Hoo-yeah!" Miko yelled excitedly as the videogame started.

"You can't boss us around just because the boss is out," Sunstreaker complained.

"I need some heavy lifting," Ratchet said, ignoring him, "The ground bridge is down," Cliffjumper looked up in concern.

"Is she…"

"Optimus and Arcee made it through just fine," Ratchet said reassuringly, "It's bringing them back that concerns me. Now, remove those panels! Chop-chop!" The Terror Twins groaned but they got to work anyways. They definitely didn't want to face the infamous wrath of Hatchet. Foliage and Maple left the command room and ran after Raf.

"Temperatures sub-zero and dropping," Raf fake grunted, pushing against the air like he was in the Arctic.

"The wind is too strong," Foliage joined him, pretending to push against the wind beside him. Maple was right next to her. Raf smiled at them before looking steady ahead.

"Got to-get back. Too base!" he said in a commanding voice.

"Yes sir!" Maple said in a strained voice. Suddenly, a roundish robot with big cute eyes stepped out from the shadows.

"Hello? Where did you come from?" Raf asked, surprised. The autobots never said anything about pets. Foliage ran over and grabbed a big pipe.

"You want to play fetch?" she asked in a cuddly voice. The little round thing jumped up and down excitingly, "Good boy!" she threw it not so far away and the round thing ran after it, bringing it back to her.

"No! Don't eat that! You're gonna choke!" Maple said, panicking as the round thing started to chew and digest the metal pipe, "Or not," Raf went over and picked it up, cradling it in his arms.

"Let's go show this to the bots!" Raf said, his eyes shining as he looked down at his new discovery.

"Sure thing!" Foliage said, petting the round thing's head. Maple cooed and started making silly faces at the round thing as they made their way back to the control room.

"Hey, guys!" Raf called out. Miko and Jack turned around on the couch and looked at the kids. "Look at what we found!" Sunstreaker and Sideswipe took one look at and they drew their guns out, an angry and petrified look was on their face. Jazz and Cliffjumper stopped laughing at whatever they were laughing and their face turned serious, also drawing their guns out. Bulkhead jumped and Bumblebee's optics widen as he too drew his guns out.

"We're busy!" Ratchet said and he turned around, "Aah! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"

"Hey, hey!" Maple said mockingly, "What's with you guys?"

"Scraplet! Scraplet!" Bulkhead screamed.

"What's a Scraplet?" Foliage asked. Sunstreaker gave her a are-you-dumb look. Maple glared back at him.

"The most dangerous vermin ever to crawl upon the face of Cybertron," Ratchet said dramatically.

"This?" Raf asked in disbelieve.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" Maple exclaimed.

"You're fucking giant robots," Foliage said gesturing to the round thing, "Scrappy here is Teeny!"

"You have no idea of the damage that teeny thing can do!" Bulkhead exclaimed, backing away from Raf.

"Aw, he wouldn't hurt anything," Raf said. The scraplet turned and saw Bumblebee. His sharp teeth showed through as he jumped out of Raf's arms and crawled on Bumblebee, chewing through his metal. Bumblebee frantically shook the scraplet off and Raf started to smash it with a pipe and he took back with him. Foliage ran up next to Raf and placed her hand shakingly on his shoulder, fidgeting her hand.

"Whoa, easy there, killer," she said. Raf stopped and took a deep breath.

"You'll make a fine gangster," Maple said jokingly. Foliage glared at her.

"Whoa," Miko gasped, running down from the hangar, "I did not see that coming,"

"I'm sorry, Bumblebee," Raf said sadly, dropping the pipe. He turned and looked at Ratchet, "Is he gonna be okay?"

"Only a mesh wound," Ratchet said, examining the wound, "He'll live,"

"Now do you believe me?" Sunstreaker said sarcastically.

"All Scraplets do is dismantle machinery and eat anything metal," Jazz explained to the humans.

"Especially living metal," Sideswipe said.

"Well, bug squashed, game over," Maple said, crossing her ars across her chest.

"No," Ratchet said gravely, "When it comes to Scraplets, there's never just one,"

"I think I know how they got in here," Cliffjumper said and motioned everyone to follow him.

"It's a trap," Sideswipe said, amazed.

"A Scraplet trap," Sunstreaker growled.

"Uh, an empty Scraplet trap," Bulkhead said nervously.

"Most likely ejected into space eons ago, only to wind up in the arctic, where the temperature kept them in stasis," Ratchet said as he inspected the empty trap and it's surroundings.

"Until we brought the thaw," Jazz said, pounding his fists together.

"Now they're wide awake and ready to brunch," Cliffjumper finished with a serious look on his face.

"So..How many are we talking about?" Miko asked, her eyes shining.

"Thousands," Ratchet said dramatically, "And the power malfunctions and ground bridge damage are sure signs that their infestation is well underway," the group made their way back to the control room, jumpy and aware for any scraplets that might be lurking around the base.

 _In the Arctic_

"Arcee, what's your status?" Optimus asked the two wheeler, "My sensor's going off,"

"Guess we should call for pickup before things get chilly," Arcee said, hugging herself tightly. Optimus nodded.

 _Back at the Base_

"Optimus to base, core temperature readings have reached the blue zone," Optimus's voice rang out clearly through the comm, "Prepare to activate ground bridge,"

"Ratchet to Optimus, do you read me?" Ratchet asked, "We have a situation!" when he got no answer back from any of the Autobots in the Arctic, he grumbled and furiously type on his computer. Cliffjumper's face fell.

"The Scraplets have gotten into the com-link system!" Ratchet said, furious, "If we don't eradicate these creatures immediately, they will reduce the entire base to a scrap heap!"

"I say we bug out of here and let them keep it!" Bulkhead said quickly, transforming into his alt mode.

"Evacuation is not an option," Cliffjumper said harshly, "If we don't get the ground bridge back online stat, Optimus and Arcee will perish!"

"They will?" Foliage asked, her eyes widening.

"Bulkhead, you never run!" Miko said, throwing her hands in the air.

"Miko, you haven't seen a swarm of these things devour a bot!" Bulkhead vented, "I have! They pick you apart from the inside out, going for the small, juicy bits first! Fuse by fuse, circuit by circuit, till there's nothing left, and I mean nothing! Not even your optics!"

"You have to let us help," Maple piped up.

"We're not made of metal," Foliage said, putting her hands on her hips. The Lambo Twins gave her a look.

"Yeah!" Miko said enthusiastically, "The Scraplets can't hurt us!"

"Typically, I find your fleshiness to be your least engaging quality," Sunstreaker said snarkily.

"But it would appear to provide an advantage under these extremes," Ratchet said, glaring at Sunstreaker and he placed his hand on his wrench.

"You're also cybertronians," Sideswipe said looking at the girls.

"Yeah! How come they didn't attack you?" Sunstreaker asked, crossing his arms. Foliage looked lazily at him.

"But the scraplet didn't attack us, didn't it?"

"Maybe their human forms shields them from the scraplet's radar," Jazz said, defending Foliage.

"He has a point," Ratchet said rushly, "But now we pair off, one bot, one human," The bots that had a charge paired off. Jack looked at the Terror Twins.

"I'll go with you?" Sunstreaker huffed.

"We don't need a bodyguard, squishy"

"Jack will be paired off with you," Ratchet said sternly. Sunstreaker grumbled something about not being helpless squishies.

"We'll watch your back while you repair the ground bridge," Foliage offered. She and her sister pulled out their guns from inside their hoodie.

"What about us?" Cliffjumper asked. Ratchet looked at them.

"Go pair yourself with Bumblebee and Bulkhead," they looked at the girls wielding their guns and did what they were asked to do.

"Woah!" Miko said, running over to the girls, "Where did you get those sick guns!"

"We always carry one around," Maple said, smirking.

"For emergencies,"

"Now is not the time for chit chat!" Ratchet yelled. Miko rolled her eyes but ran back to Bulkhead anyways.

"And we go on a bug hunt!" Miko said.

"Oh, boy,"

 _In the Arctic_

"Optimus to base," Optimus said, stopping in the blizzard, "Do you read?"

"Are you sure a nice long drive wouldn't help?" Arcee asked, hugging herself tightly as she took every step against the raging blizzard, "I hear Miami's beautiful this time of year,"

"The nearest temperate climate is too distant, Arcee," Optimus said gently, "Attempting to reach it would expend too much energy and hasten the freezing process," Arcee shivered, "Until Ratchet sends for us, and he will, our best option would be to seek shelter and insulate ourselves," Arcee slipped and fell one the snowy ice. Optimus stepped back and helped Arcee up on her feet.

"Just a few more steps," he said encouragingly, "I see a cave ahead,"

 _Back at the Base_

Ratchet leaned down as he pulled out the groundbridge part by part, examining the damage.

"You're not just a medic ya know," Foliage said, watching him repair the parts one by one.

"Hmm?"

"You fix people, make repairs, taking over in the dark times," Maple told him. Ratchet paused and looked at the girls questionly.

"Just saying," he turned back and continued with his work.

"Don't these things ever stop eating?" Foliage asked as she saw how much damage the scraplets made. There were big holes in each of the parts and layers he pulled out. They went after all of the important bits and pieces.

"How's it going over there?"

"I've repaired the damaged conductors and rerouted the central conduits, but the ground bridge still won't receive power!" Ratchet said frustrated. They heard a scream from the halls.

"Woah!" Foliage said, smiling widely, "I wonder who that was?" Maple snickered as Ratchet rolled his eyes. They didn't even need to guess. They knew alright who that scream belonged to.

Suddenly, scratchy noises were heard as scraplets poured over from the top of the walls. Their razor sharp teeth showed and some of them took off.

"They fly?!" Foliage said as she rapidly shot down the swarm of scraplets.

"You never said they could fly!" Maple said as she sniped those that were getting too close to Ratchet for her liking. One sneakily got pass her vision and started to chew on Ratchet's leg.

"Ratchet!" Maple exclaimed as she tried to shoot down the scraplet. Ratchet started to jump up and down, trying to shake off the scraplet as more attached themselves onto various places on his frame.

"The fire extinguisher!" Foliage suddenly shouted.

"What!"

"Just fucking get it!" Maple hastily grabbed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it on Ratchet and the area surrounding him. The scraplets froze up and they dropped onto the floor like rocks. The rest of the bots returned to the control room with their respective humans.

"Ratchet, get the patch kit," Jazz said before he looked up, "We're leaking energon like...Whoa!" The scraplets took a look at the new arrivals and bared their teeth, attacking them in swarms. Foliage and Maple hastily shot at the scraplets.

"Ug!" Foliage said as she quickly examined her gun, "I ran out of bullets!"

"Me too!" The girls frantically picked up a pipe and started to squat the air. Bumblebee and the rest of the bots frantically shot at the swarm, not really caring if they hit or not because there was too many to aim.

"Eat this!" Bulkhead yelled as he punched the air with his wrecking sphere but when he saw that the scraplets had attached themselves to his sphere and his other hand, he started screaming like a girl," AHHHHH!"

 _In the Arctic_

"Arcee, wake up," Optimus said as he shook Arcee's shoulders gently. Her blue optics flashed online.

"Just resting my eyes," she fibbed.

"The longer we remain alert, the longer we remain alive," Optimus said realistitly.

"What do you suggest?"

"Wait," Arcee nodded as she pushed her legs closer to her chasis.

"How about a game?" Arcee said sarcastically, "Let's play "who screwed things up back at base?" Optimus has a ghost of a smile on his face.

"Our predicament could be the result of a simple malfunction,"

"Caused by Bulkhead," she snorted, her eyes shining playfully, "Let's see. No com-link. Maybe even no power," she pretended to think for a moment, "The big lug probably tripped over a cord! He's never been too graceful," Optimus mentally laughed. Arcee may seem to be a distant bot be she has a sense of sarcastic humor.

"Remember when we first arrived on earth and Bulkhead walked into those power lines?" Arcee mused, "Who knew he could dance like that?"

"Bulkhead may be too large for this world," Optimus said, choosing his words carefully, "But his inner strength is without bounds. One should not be measured by size alone," Arcee nodded at his wise words. You could always count on the Prime to turn a bad situation into a good one.

 _Back at the Base_

"We get them all?" Foliage said as she sprayed the fire extinguisher.

"Hardly," Ratchet groaned, "These were just scouts,"

"So, the rest of them know we're in here?" Maple asked as she stretched. Ratchet nodded.

"And if we allow ourselves to become their next meal, Optimus and Arcee will never make it home," Ratchet said as he forcefully pushed himself up, "We must get the ground bridge operational," Cliffjumper optics widen and he too pushed himself up.

"Then we can use it to send the Scraplets anywhere on earth," Cliffjumper said.

"Why not back to the arctic?" Jack said, "We already know they don't do cold,"

"Sweet!" Miko exclaimed, "One-stop shopping,"

"They're small," Jazz grunted as he pushed himself up and leaned against the monitor, "So they should freeze right away,"

"Think, Ratchet," Ratchet said to himself, "Think! If the ground bridge is still down, there must be a breach in the energon fuel line!"

"If we weren't breaching, one of us could get back over there and fix it," Ratchet said as he surveyed the damage the scraplets did on the Autobots. All of them were leaking energon.

"Where do we find it?" Foliage asked, putting on a brave face.

"And how do we fix it?" Maple said, putting on a stance.

"There's a piece of metal over there," Ratchet pointed, "And a fixing kit," Jack, Miko, Maple, and Foliage ran over and grabbed both ends of the piece of metal.

"Raf!" Jack called, "Get under and lift the piece up!" Raf ran over and got under the piece of metal and put both of his hands on the base and pushed upwards.

"Move towards me," Foliage directed as she and Maple started to walk backwards. The humans moved slowly but steady, moving into the hallway.

"Good luck!" Cliffjumper yelled out. Foliage nodded. Not far into the hallways, they hit the swarm of passive scraplets walking in the other direction. They all instinctively tip toed around the scraplets.

"Remember, we're okay," Jack reassured the humans, "We're not metal,"

"We are," Foliage playfully retorted. Jack sighed.

"Whatever,"

"There's the breach!" Miko shouted as soon as she saw the blue energon leaking from the long pipe.

"Come on," Jack said as they all gently lowered the piece of metal onto the ground, "We have to work fast," The humans got out their equipments and started to fire the metal piece to the breach.

"So, if we get," Sideswipe said before rephrasing, "When we get the ground bridge open, do we send the creepy-crawlies out or bring our bots in?"

"Optimus and Arcee will be fresh meat," Jazz said, "If we bring them in first, the Scraplets will have no reason to leave,"

"We'll need bait," Ratchet confirmed.

"Where are we gonna get bait?!" Sunstreaker said throwing his hands up, "The Scraplets already helped themselves to everything in here!" scratching sounds were heard as a swarm of scraplets broke out of the vents.

"They're getting ready to feed!"

 _In the Arctic_

"You know the worst part?" Arcee said after a while, "After battling 'cons all these years, getting smacked down, shot at, blown up and this is how our lights go out?"

"Arcee, this may not be the finish that we had planned, but if this is indeed the end, if we are to become one with the allspark," Optimus left that line unfinished. Arcee filled in the blanks in her head.

"It's been an honor serving with you, Optimus Prime," Optimus acknowledged her statement with a nod.

 _Back at the Base_

"Ratchet, all systems go!" Foliage said as she and the rest of the humans ran back. The scraplet swarms were swirling above their heads.

"Fire it up!" Maple yelled. Ratchet grunted as he painfully sat up again.

"Ground bridge... Activated," he slumped back down to the ground. The groundbridge was left open. Foliage looked and Maple and nodded at her. She nodded back. The both transformed into their bipedal modes and started t wave their arms.

"Hey bitches!" Foliage taunted.

"Come and get the main course!" the scraplets started to swirl down, preparing to attack the girls. They started to run into the groundbridge as fast as they can but the scraplets were faster, some of them started to attach onto their frame. They ran through the groundbridge and Foliage yelled out:

"Down! Down!" Maple came through and charged right into Foliage, causing both of them to crash into the snow. Optimus got out his gun, prepared to defend Arcee but before the scraplets could do any harm, they froze up. For the first time in human history, it rained frozen scraplets.

"I'd invite you in, but the place is a mess," Maple said, helping her sister up. The four bots walked back into the groundbridge and back to base. Cliffjumper and Jazz were up and pacing around the place like caged dogs.

"What were you thinking!" Jazz scolded his charge when he saw her walk in through the groundbridge. Maple gave him a lazy look.

"We weren't" Foliage shivered and took a seat on the crate that was in front of a circular tube. Optimus went and closed the groundbridge. Maple head over and sat next to Foliage, putting an arm around her for extra warmth. Foliage leaned against her sister, shivering as both girls transformed back into their human modes. Cliffjumper saw the nearly frozen Arcee and limped over to her.

"Are you ok?" Arcee gave him a pained smile.

"Better than ever partner," Cliffjumper helped her to one of the medical berths and lay her down. Optimus helped Bulkhead up onto the other medical berth. The Terror Twins were laying on the ground, next to each other.

"Report bio-circuitry status," Ratchet said.

"Levels are rising,"

"Excellent," he nodded, "Rafael, keep a close watch on Bumblebee's electro-pulse monitor," Raf ran over and took a look, "Miko, check bulkhead's interface patch,"

"It's steady!"

"Looking good!"

"Jack! Check Cliffjumper's servo!"

"Raf! Check Jazz's left leg!" Optimus leaned over.

"Perhaps you should get some rest yourself, old friend," Optimus commented, "You saved quite a few lives today,"

"It wasn't all my doing," Ratchet said, looking at the hard working humans, "We're just fortunate that this infestation happened On a Saturday.

"Our human friends may be small, but they are strong," a shrilling scream was heard from Miko. Foliage and Maple jumped, screaming as well.

"Scraplet?!" Jack said grabbing a wrench.

"Spider!" Miko screamed. Upon hearing that, the girls yelled even louder.

"Spider!" Foliage jumped up, "AHHHH… wait a sec,"

"It's a spider?"

"Is it on me?!" Miko yelled, running away from the scene, "Aah!" Get off!"

"Did she just scream like a little girl?" Maple snorted.

"Because she is one?" Foliage sighed and ben down to pick up the spider.

"May I ask what Miko was so afraid of?" Foliage turned around and showed the spider to Optimus.

"It's called a spider," Sunstreaker turned his head.

"Let me see!" Foliage went around and let everybot take a good look.

"Seriously! That squishy was afraid of a thing tiny as this?" Sunstreaker snorted.

"It's a real fear that some humans have," Foliage said seriously.

"It's called arachnophobia," Maple added, "There are some sever cases of this condition that caused the person to have a heart attack and died just because they saw one,"

"Is it that serious?" Ratchet asked, his medical side turned on.

"It different for every person," Foliage shivered and her eyes glazed over, "I'm gonna to go rest," she hugged herself and started waddling into the hallway. She suddenly felt a tingling feeling throughout her body. She turned around and looked at Ratchet.

"Did you just scan me?" Ratchet nodded, looking at his results.

"My scans shows that your body is at the right temperature, you shouldn't be cold,"

"You scanned me?" Ratchet nodded. Her eyes glazed over even more and she started to noticeably shake and she hugged herself even tighter. Maple rushed over and gave her a firm hug.

"What is wrong with her?" Maple glared at Ratchet.

"Nothing," she said and whispered some things to Foliage. She carefully lead Foliage back into their room with one arm wrapped firmly around her. They closed the door to any questions that might have came their way if they stayed.


End file.
